Blogging for Grasshoppers

As I’ve been getting slightly more comfortable with this whole blogging thing, I’ve been trying to figure out how exactly to share what I’ve learned over the past couple of years (give or take a few months).

Whoa. That makes me sound like a social media Jedi, doesn’t it?

Rest assured, I’m not.

I’m just like you.

I stumbled upon Twitter, fought tooth and nail before joining Facebook, and couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out who, if anyone, would care about what I blogged, let alone why I blogged.

Fortunately for all of us <<ingratiating smile>> I managed to overcome those reservations.

And Here. I. Am!

There are any number of people who have been blogging way longer than I have.

(And, most magnanimously, they let you know that they have, too.)

More power to them.

A tweet that Shel Israel sent me a few days ago (on a completely unrelated conversation) gave birth to the idea of Blogging for Grasshoppers.

When I realized what Shel meant, I was tickled.

Shel = wise old master?

Check.

Me = brilliant student?

Whee!

Grasshopper Green

I first came across the poem “Grasshopper Green” while in grade school, written by Anonymous.

(That “Anonymous” sure was prolific.)

I remember thinking, back when I wore glasses a mile wide and hair oiled enough to send everyone running, that perhaps he wasn’t such a bad chap.

Sure, he “lived on the best of fare” and “played away in the sun” and went “hopperty, skipperty, high and low.”

But why do I have a lingering fondness for the devil-may-care GG, and what does he have to do with you and me?

First, he made the best of what he had.

Second, it didn’t matter how many grasshoppers had been before him, or how many were to come.

He did what he had to do, because he wanted to… and because he could.

You and me

we don’t give undue credence to who’s gone before or who’s to come (though we give due credence to those who deserve, and earn, it).

We do what we do

because we can, because we want to.

We try to learn lessons from those who’ve blazed the path… but we try to put our own stamp on what is to be.

If we were to stop, give up and say, “X already did/said/thought of this, so I’d better give up,” where would we be?

Surely our own, individual, voices are enough reason to be here, now, this minute?

The road most traveled

It doesn’t matter what people who’ve already walked this path have thought or said.

There are still enough of us who are still setting foot on it, to make our own experiences unique and relevant.

The fact that you and I are thinking and saying it gives new dimension to our reality and – dare I say it? – perhaps even a new dimension to previously-articulated thoughts and sayings.

So I will start sharing my lessons learned – and what I hope to learn – through the Grasshopper, and hang anyone who says it’s nothing new.

It is new.

It was new for me, and it might be new for you.

And that’s enough reason for me to continue.

What do you think?

Image: Bob Peterson via Flickr, CC 2.0