My First Book*

I have always enjoyed writing, and have tried keeping a journal on numerous occasions, but I inevitably got bored with myself or too far behind. I entertained ideas of writing something other than a journal, but always wound up writing about my own life and experience.

A few years ago I met a man named Raymond at Peet's. (He was a blip on Aug 26 2012.) He was writing away in a fat book filled with snapshots. His handwriting was interesting--it almost looked like graffiti and was eye catching, even from my bench across the courtyard. We started talking, and he told me that he taught at San Francisco City College, and one of his subjects was journal writing. He had dozens of fat books on his bookshelf. He shared his ideas on writing, on photography and on keeping a journal for free with me on a bench at Peet's every Sunday for several months.

I loved keeping a journal with photographs, but I still lacked the discipline to write every day. Inevitably I would get behind, and when I tried to catch up, my life just seemed too boring to write about or even remember. I don't think Blipfoto has done anything to make my life any less boring, but what it has done is provide a platform and a motivation to write every day, and that is because of the photograph,-the "audience", the comments, the need to choose just one and make it the best, most interesting one I could. It really has made me look at the world and at my life in a new way.

Yesterday my first 365 Blipfoto book arrived in the mail. It is inaptly named (sounds like a baby book!) and full of typos, despite my editing, but I am proud of it. I am old fashioned enough that I still read a newspaper every day, and I still read "real" books, so, while I think the online format of Blipfoto is the perfect platform for a daily journal, it makes me happy to see it, pick it up, admire it on the coffee table, leaf through it, enjoy the beautiful format and graphics, and, even though they may not be terribly interested right now, it might answer some of my children's inevitable questions when I am no longer around to answer them.

*Perhaps a better title would have been The First Year since it never would have happened without the entire Blipfoto community to inspire and encourage me. Thank you one and all.