She had the look of a businesswoman.  My perception of her was affirmed when I saw her reading a book on how to manage your team, and how to get the most out of your employees.  Her hair was dyed that funny grey/silver color that always leaves me perplexed if it was a blonde dye gone bad or if it was meant to be that color.

I was rather puzzled when I saw her thumbing rapidly through her phone before takeoff.  Her search inquiry was how to deactivate her Facebook and Instagram account.

I know you probably think I was being a little too snoopy.  The fact is, I wasn’t.  She sat one row ahead of me, and her phone was angled my way.  I say, if you don’t want someone looking at what you are looking at on your phone in a plane, don’t look on your phone.

She eventually found the area she was looking for and got both accounts deactivated.  There was no lingering or indecision.  The action was definite. 

When the app queried as to why she was deleting her account, she selected, It makes me spend too much time on my phone.

I wanted to stand up and congratulate her right then and there, but It seemed a bit inappropriate to do so on something I had seen over her shoulder, so I left it be.

I read recently that reading something on your phone limits your comprehension to the screen size.  Now admittedly, some folks will have a fair-sized comprehension.  Mine, not so much. 

I also read that our attention span is steadily getting shorter.  And they blame it on our electronic gadgets.  They say that we are getting right close to the attention span of a goldfish. 

And I wrote all that, and it is more clutter for your phone, per se.  My hope is that the stuff I send your way isn’t too time consuming or full of clutter.  I also hope that if it becomes that, you will leave off reading what I send you. 

I have this thing called a blog.  The original word for blog was/is weblogging.  Supposedly the original intent of a blog is so folks can journal about their day.  Apparently a good blog has lots of pictures, videos, and links to other sites, etc., to try to pull in more readers.  I hear some bloggers do it for money, and I guess if that is why a person did it, you’d want all the readers you could get.  I don’t do it for money.  You and I can both rest easy on that one.

Lately, I’ve been amazed at some of the blog material folks read, including the stuff you read from yours truly.

I’ve been asking myself why I write, because today it is much the same as when I was in school.  I get bored if I write too long. 

But there is a certain catharsis in writing.  At least for me.

And, as my friend Kate put it so well, “Blogs are for people who have stories with too many details to tell at the dinner table.”

But it begs a question.  I stopped in recently to see my friend, Dr. Kenneth Bell, who runs one of the newspapers we advertise in.  “Have you ever thought about a memoir?”  I asked.  “I know there are chunks of your life that you couldn’t write about (he was used by the CIA during his time in service) but I’d like to read about the rest.”

He chuckled.  “Yeah, I have,” he said, “Even thought about a weekly excerpt here in the paper, but it seemed rather self-serving.”

Is that what a blog or writing is?  Self-Serving?