Don't you just love those science fiction films where an ordinary man is projected backwards and forwards in time? He'll be battling with dinosaurs and then, in the blink of an eye, he's floating around in the future dealing with robots who are about to rebel and try to take over the world.
I sometimes feel like that ordinary man when I get the time to answer some of your letters. Even goldfish fare better than me in the memory department. By the time I organise my time to holler back at all the letter writers, I have to piece together your observations about my articles and try to connect them to whatever I might have written. So here's another attempt to get back to you and share what I make you think about.
Ms Ankica was reflective about my column on teenagers and their reliance on modern technology. Ms A is an old-schooler: a self-confessed pre-internetter who praises me for raising "philosophical theories that will make us question our own behaviour". I wasn't aware that I did that, but I will happily pretend that was my intention!
Strangely, Maryam W backed this up by declaring herself a teen who isn't lost in Facebook and the like, who feels that her life is much richer for it. Instead, she spends quality time with family and friends who are nearer and dearer. Each to their own, that's what I preach!
One thing that I obviously achieve with my freestyle approach to article writing is to give hope and inspiration to others for whom this could be a career or pastime worth undertaking.
I think it's a case of, "Wow, if he can do it, anyone can do it!" Now, some might take that as criticism but I swell with pride that it motivates others and makes what seems like an unattainable dream well within anyone's reach.
There is some mad talent out there among my people, I tell you. Kaveri wrote in saying, "I'm still feeling pretty weird about this e-mail since I'm not sure whether I'm sending this to the right person". Still, she put her jitters aside and took the risk of sharing some of her poetry with me. I haven't got the space to feature it here, but let me tell you: it's lyrical wizardry!
As usual, I am jumping around like a frog on a hot plate, but way back I probably wrote something that encouraged all of you to embrace life's challenges and, when the time's right, step out of your comfort zones into& well, a slightly less comfortable but more exciting zone. Zoey Onboard reportedly made that leap and took her first flight away from home to work overseas. Her words rang so true when she said, "Remember that the only thing that is constant in this world is change. And because of these changes I am here now facing new challenges and making another chapter of my life." You go, girl!
I was chastised by Ruth C recently because, after all my constant railing against the Facebook Flu that everyone seems to have caught, I seemed to send friend invites to loads of people from the very platform that I deny any interest in. That's the problem when you are me; one slip of the finger and suddenly I am the biggest hypocrite!
Ms Lily G was surprised that I described myself in one article as "a shy guy" and wondered if this can really be true since, "Your writing stands so boldly to challenge the interest of all genders of all ages."
Let me clarify: I am not traditionally 'shy' as such. That is to say, I am no shrinking violet, but I certainly do not strive for any degree of 'celebrity'. And anyone could do what I do if no one really knew who you were!
Mystery-Man-ingly Yours
