And The Purpose Is....

For the past day now, I've had an "earworm" going on here. You know what an "earworm is, don't you? When you get some bit of music stuck in your mind, playing over and over -ad nauseum -for you.

The song I've been hearing is "The purpose of a man is to love a woman and the purpose of a woman is to love her man." No other words, just those, tumbling about in my mind.

But what got this started came to me after church yesterday and after I had three different conversations about the same topic -which involved my blog -and I got to thinking about things like the purpose of my blog, which in turn apparently pulled a trigger up for me on this song.

So no, this post is not about finding Price or Princess Charming, or relationships with them -nope, not about anything like that at all.

But it is about why do we, each of us, blog? What was it that brought each of us to start recording our thoughts -and then responses to others in the form of comments or even a new blog post to respond to a topic too -in the first place?

When I began this blog, my intent was to kind of leave something of me behind for my grandchildren to read someday. A means by which they could learn of the paths my life has taken, the things I've done, learned, experienced -good and bad. I also wanted it to be a way they could maybe learn about their extended family as I intended to put things in here about family members who I knew and loved but who have been long gone before the day my grandchildren entered into my life.

And, as I began posting, telling more and more about the issues with respect to my two younger grandchildren, both being autistic, I wanted then to pass on to readers about the things my daughter and I have learned from these two little ones -the good as well as some of the down sides to living with autistic children. My point there -or purpose, if you will -being to allow people to learn that for the most part, these children are not much different than other children in the same ages ranges. It's just that these two here need a little helping hand in learning to process information properly.

I have from time to time also talked in my blog about the place I call home -this little village, the area in general, shared my love (I hope) of history and in particular the history of this town as it came into being and as it has evolved to what it is today.

About a month ago now, I received a comment on my blog from a gentleman telling me that he really appreciated my posts about this village because it is where he was born and where he spent the first 12 years of his life. My stories brought back memories to him of a time, long ago, and he commented to tell me that.

After reading his words, I replied to him in an e-mail and thus began a little stream of communication between us. I learned for sure (I had suspected this in his early comments) that he had grown up in a house about four doors down the road from me. I had also grown up hearing about members of his family too as apparently some of his siblings were of the same age range as my Mom and some of her siblings. Probably because his parents were like my grandparents -of Swedish ethnicity and members of the local Lutheran church, there was another link there between his family and mine.

But yesterday was the first time since I began communicating with "Arnie" that I managed to get to church and because yesterday was also the day our congregation held their Annual Congregational Meeting, there were some folks there that I don't always get to see too. Three, to be exact, who I figured would be in about the same age range as Arnie and those three also had grown up here in this village.

So I approached each of them, telling them about my blog and how Arnie had commented to me and of our line of communication no on going and in doing so, I asked each of these folks if they remembered Arnie and/or any of his siblings or his parents.

How great it was for me to see the way each of these individuals eyes lit up upon learning I'd heard from someone from their past! The one man I spoke to -Steve -told me he didn't recognize Arnie's name but that he had been good friends with a boy named Herbert who had lived in the house where Arnie spent his first 12 years of live and we ascertained that Herbert was no doubt an older brother of Arnie's. The two ladies -one who after her marriage lived in the house adjacent to Arnie's old home and who remembered the family -Arnie's family. The third lady told me she had gone to school with Arnie, that they had been in the same grade together until his family left the area and had moved to Williamsport, PA.

I have a friend who reads my blog -lives down in Carlisle, PA now -and because of circumstances in her family's life, she grew up in/around the Harrisburg area while her older brother lived here with their paternal grandparents. It just so happens her brother was my age and we had gone through grade school, then high school and graduated together. Although her brother died back in 1981, she still has family in this area and those members of her family are very much a part of my life as well as my kids! We can now share information of a family tree variety now too because the daughter of one of her first cousins married the brother of my ex-husband so my nephew and nieces there are this lady's cousins! Because she spent a lot of time here as a child in the summers at the home next door to mine with her aunt, uncle and many cousins there, she remembers many of the things about this area that I write about from time to time. She knows many of the people I mention in my blog now and again too.

So, in conjuction now with some of the "purposes" I mentioned above for my blog, here are two photos I recieved on Saturday and which I scanned in here.

The first one is mainly for anyone from my Mom's family who might possibly read my blog.
This picture, taken over the holidays, shows at the top, the children and spouses of my first cousin, Tom Eld and his wife Linda's family. There's Corey Eld, his wife, Mindy, their daughter, Berlyn, Rick Eld, Amie Eld and her husband Rob. And the bottom photo is the granddaughter of Tom and Linda Eld. According to the note that Linda -the grandmother -sent along with this photo, our family tree also has another addition to it with the recent birth of their grandson, named Oscar Bryce Eld! Linda promised to send photos of the new baby too in the near future. Something of interest to me -perhaps not to anyone else even in my family but the grandson's name "Oscar Bryce Eld." You see my grandfather had a brother named Oscar who was one of my favorite great-uncles growing up. He passed away in 1964 or 1965 -not sure right now of the year -but now about 40 plus years, there is, once again, an Oscar Eld in my Eld Family Tree!

The other photo here was taken in October of 1959 and the people in this photo are the members of the Confirmation Class that year at what was then First Lutheran Church of Grassflat, PA. The church in which I was confirmed was struck by lightning in May of 1967 and burned completely to the ground within what was said to be seemingly a matter of mere minutes.

Here then are the names of those in my Confirmation class: (from left to right)
Dennis Nelson, Edward Handzo, Bridget Raymond, Ruby Nelson, Pastor Robert H. Magnuson, Jackie Duck, me (Jennifer Hill), Nancy Duck, Arlene Anderson, Richard Terry and Gerald Smith.

Four of my fellow confirmands are deceased -Ed Handzo, Ruby Nelson, Nancy Duck and Gerry Smith. Two -Ruby and Gerry -died in the 60's in separate automobile accidents.

And that photo serves another purpose of my blog -to remind any readers I may have who were originally from this area -of events from the past in the little village of Grassflat, PA!

How about you and your blog? Do you have a specific purpose now or did you start it with a purpose in mind and then, kind of branch out to being much more eclectic with it, in purpose?

Talk to me, tell me what it is that spurred you into blogging as well as what it is about blogging that still keeps you going, that serves the "purpose" of your blog!

Inquiring minds want to know these things, ya know!