Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Making History: Or why your blog matters

Doing some reading for my prospectus tonight, I was reading Peter Burke’s thoughts on microhistory. In it, he quotes an anthropologist named Clifford Geertz who writes about the need “to ferret out the unapparent import of things.” I’ve been chewing on this little phrase all night and finally realized that this has, unknowingly, been a life principle for me, not just as a scholar but as a writer and a blogger. I am fascinated by the tiny little nothing-detail that means something bigger.

History

That is what blogging has become for me – an opportunity to “ferret out” the important truth inside the day-to-day-everydayness. It’s amazing to me how blogging becomes a way of writing my own microhistory. I could probably write down every teeny life detail, however boring that might be to read, but somehow blogging the little stories tells a big story. And if every blog is a microhistory, then all the blogs in the universe together might tell an even bigger story. This is the strength of the blogger and I have been taking it for granted.

So congratulations. I bet you didn’t know that you, blogger friend of mine, were a micro-historian. Keep on making history.

love, elizabeth

5 comments:

Ashley said...

Love this! Thanks, lady! :) Means so much, especially when I don't feel like I have anything important to say.

S. Donald said...

Wow! Thanks for this thought, sometimes I just feel like "who the heck cares about (blank) but me?"

Brooke @ Silver Lining said...

I love this. I'm linking to it in my post today :)

Unknown said...

This is fantastic, just the words I needed to hear! Feel free to stop by my blog Different is Beautiful anytime!
xo
Julie
http://www.7julieh.blogspot.com

eileen ragan | leaner by the lake said...

Ahh, these are fantastic words. Thanks for passing along that quote. I couldn't agree with you more. My blog has become my history and my discovery, a place where I'm becoming myself and growing up in front of my very eyes.

Happy Weekending,
Eileen

www.leanerbythelake.com

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