Having yesterday set forth my political leanings...

in a forthright and, I believe, charming manner, today I'd like to share my observations regarding this -- the blogosphere. Even H. G. Wells himself never dreamt up such a fantastic world (although in E. M. Forster's turn-of-the-twentieth-century short story, The Machine Stops, he writes about instant messaging and "cinematophoes," or visual imaging machines!). Here, diversity and creativity team with information both sound and insane and sometimes mundane, punctuated with the ramblings of the highly intellectual, the cleverly thoughtful and the occasionally moronic.

As I navigated through this site, I clicked on a number of blogs written by teenagers and young adults. Most often they spoke about "what I did today." One notable blog was written by a 20-something female who meticulously described in great detail how she turned off her computer, turned off each lamp in her home then, having decided to go for a walk outside, in the darkness with hands outstretched, she walked face first into a door jamb. Ouch!

Some, though perhaps not that one, display maturity beyond their years, whether they were aiming at that or not. But all were consumed in the immediate world in which they live; experience on a visceral level only youth can enjoy. Music--lots of blogs about music, or current TV shows, great places to visit or just go and 'hang.' All Things New, Young and Hip.

It all came to back me. I was the same when I was a teen and young adult. Through long tedious classes of history and political science, or at the desk of my first job, my thoughts might focus on the fantastic prospect of having a date with that cute boy I saw the other night, or I'd plan out my outfit for the coming weekend's venture to Greenwich Village, wondering if my jeans were belled and frayed sufficiently. Might I borrow my best friend's purple suede jacket? Oh, I'd look so groovy. Never would I think about things so prosaic as our country's involvement in Viet Nam, or the war which was raging--in all its various forms--at that time, or whether Nixon really was the crook he claimed not to be. Yet many youth at that time were concerned with such things; they were politically involved, motivated by altruistic outrage at the mishandling of all things governmental. They, or rather WE (for obviously I included myself among the members of my g-g-g-generation) would change the world. Peace and Love to the soundtrack of Hair, or flag burning to the anthem, Ohio, by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I can claim attendance at only one peace rally, quite by accident, when I climbed out of the subway station at 59th and Fifth Avenue one Saturday afternoon and found myself in the midst of one. You might say I skirted it, waving an occasional 'peace' hand sign to show approval. It was lost in a sea of them.

I didn't understand the politics of war or government at the time, nor did I care. There were more important things, as there are with the youth of today. If you stumble into a wall, you could break your nose, or at least make it bleed, and that's more at issue: personally, physically, monetarily even, than whether congress passes the latest budget, or social security goes bye-bye.

So it was fun in a nostalgic way to read some of the blogs. I envy them their innocence, their carefree yet often careless freedoms, their spontaneous pleasures. But I'm happy in my own skin too, and in my 50-something mind, with worries that extend into a future I'll never see, and with freedoms the young will take decades acquiring. Here in the blogosphere, in ways small or possibly large, each of us can make a difference, regardless--or perhaps because--of the interests we share.