There is no doubt in my mind that the blog revolution has forever changed the face of digital publishing. No longer is one required to be a designer, or ever have an ounce of understanding of web publishing to create visually appealing content easily and with a minimal amount of effort.

Blogs like people come in many shapes and sizes, while some may choose to use them as a digital diary or journal, others see them as an easy way to share family updates with friends and family. Have something you feel strongly about? Have something you want to rant about? Have some great art or photos you want to showcase? No problem. Start a blog.

Blogs let us easily publish our feelings, moods, thoughts, desires, art, photos and just about anything else that comes to mind.

You may be reading this thinking — Yeah… thank you Captain Obvious for stating something that is well, obvious! Had I just read this on another blog, I too would have the same thought. However, there is a reason for my reflection.

This weekend we attended a social event, in the course of getting up to date with friends a lady we know expressed confusion over this site, she was looking for family updates and wondered if we had a “family” blog.

I was a bit stunned, in my mind eleven22.org was a personal blog, in my definition of “personal” it included a wide variety of topics, including posts about family, flickr photos etc.

I was quite possibly the first time that I ever actually stopped to consider that others might now perceive eleven22.org in the same way that I did.

Yes, it was an incredibly narcissistic view for me to hold. It took that simple act of befuddled confusion on the part of our dear friend to make me aware of it.

I don’t see eleven22.org changing in content or scope because of this revelation, but I will forever be more cognizant that other people might view it in a way other than I originally intended. Hopefully the result of this knowledge will be better written posts.

Frost covered my lawn this morning, it looked as if the slightest touch would cause the grass to shatter.  And for some reason that frost stayed with me all day.

My subconscious gave me whispers of it to keep my detached interest, but not enough to cause me to come to any major revelations, or anything so grandeur in nature.

That would come later, around seven this very evening. Frost had been changed by my subconscious to Robert Frost, the poet. And surprisingly enough to “The Road Not Taken” that you see below.

I guess it is a factor of age, wisdom some might call it that I find myself recalling decisions that I have made, paths I have taken, an paths that are no longer available to me.

What would me life be like if I have made certain decisions? I shudder to think of what it would not have been had I made certain others. Take my wife, I met her by chance at college, homecoming to be exact, on a night that I had no intention in the world of going out.

If it wasn’t for a visiting friend who was back for homecoming and insisted on going out, I would have never met my wife, fallen in love and had my son Maverick.

So much, so much that would never have existed if I had not gone to that bar that night. Its staggering honestly when I stop to think about it.

Frost’s poem is amazing in so many ways, and such a great metaphor for our own decisions.
“And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;”

The unknown, the undergrowth is always there tempering our decisions and acting as a constant reminder that no matter how much we think about a decision, the path we walk will ultimately have the potential for a disaster waiting around the bend that we could never forseen.

Two paths, one less traveled. One path that ultimately turned out to be the right one in the end. His message is clear to me, or to my interpretation at least — easier is not always better.

I agree completed. I went to college wanting to go to dental school. I had average grades, but could have done it if I had really applied myself. I took an easier path. I wanted to have fun, I didn’t think of the future, I thought of the now.

Ultimately I traded four years of fun for the very real possibility that I will work forty years in a corporate environment, chances are working for someone else. I took the easier path to the keg, instead of the less traveled path to the library. Lesson learned.

We all have had times where we have taken one road or the other, the key I think is not losing sight of the other road. Everyone needs a map to help guide us on our way, they come in many shapes, sizes and forms.

This morning it was frost on the grass and Robert Frost, who knows what tomorrow will bring.

The Road Not Taken
by Robert FrostTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Can play an essential part in the maintenance of a balanced view of the world and ourselves. That is my revelation for today. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t something that needs to be physical, or even something done to us by another person, but its necessary for balance.

When things go well we are happy, we are comfortable, and we get lazy. Think about that job you have, remember how on the edge you were at the beginning, how hard you pushed yourself no only for your boss’ benefit, but for your own.

Fast forward a few years, things have gotten routine, boring, safe. You come in to work, have your coffee, read some email, surf the web, get some more coffee, etc. until your entire day has become nothing but another carbon copy of the last. Before you know it your weeks start to blur and without even realizing it — you feel dead inside, a husk of the worker you once were.

Or, you go down another equally destructive path… You become narcissistic, cocky, flippant. Your work begins to degrade but you can’t see past the golden glow of your own worth that you have constructed around yourself. You end up fucking up because of your own hubris and find yourself out on your ass without a job.

Congratulations, it turns out that you are not that delicate and rare orchid that inspires people to wipe your ass and worship the ground you walk on, rather you are a mere dandelion — easily replaced by someone better, smarter and less expensive who hasn’t lost his or her hunger to succeed that you once had.

So how can you remedy this situation that is starting to spiral out of control. Simple solution — Slap yourself mentally. Write a note to your future self telling the future you to stop being an ass. Do whatever it takes, employ whoever you can, but get that slap.

Hell, just bookmark this post. It might help you in the future when and if you need it, why do you think I wrote this after all? For you? Yeah.. that’s it.