New Year, Yet Another Neglected Journal

I am just one of those people who like the idea of journals, but can't seem to keep up with all of them. This blog suffers more than my print journals do. At least the poetry journal I can just write a word or two if I want, this one and my diaries seem to demand more.

It isn't that writing is not a natural thing for me, but rather that I think of too many things to write, and think of them at times when I cannot get to the computer or to my notebooks.
Some random things that have popped into my head:
While walking the dog in the cold weather, I think how the woodsmoke smell fills our neighborhood this time of year, and how I used to love it, but now it makes my eyes burn and makes it hard to breathe. (I have always been smoke sensitive, but wood smoke never used to bother me.)

I ponder on how this country has been building a financial house of cards for years, and I wonder why people are surprised that it is collapsing. What did they think would happen?

All the technology that has sprung up that threatens to take away cherished institutions, like personal letters and real birthday cards, and writing things by hand the hard way. I am one of those almost-Luddites who love fountain pens and leather bound journals. I also would rather get an actual postcard rather than an electronic one. Actual greeting cards or letters are even better. One thing I will never warm up to is books read on the screen. Even if it is a small portable screen, it will not be visceral enough for me. Books have texture, substance, scent, heft, and presence. You cannot hide behind a small electronic screen like you can behind a good big novel. Some books are very old, and you wonder who has read this book before you. Sometimes you find things left in books, things like dried flowers, or old cards, maybe even a page of a letter. Books connect us with the humanity that has come before in ways that words on a screen never will.
And yet, here I am, sending words out to live on a screen, perhaps for some intrepid soul to read. If you do read them, thank you. I hope you found something worthwhile here, or something perhaps for your brain to chew on for awhile. Feel free to comment.