There's a whole bunch of readers of this blog who send in a lot of private e-mails. They're responding to things I post here or just telling me thoughts that I suspect they'd put on their blogs if they had blogs. A few of them write me almost every day and one or two seem to think that every time I post anything here, they automatically owe me an e-mail commenting on what I wrote. I know they understand that I cannot reply to all of them but lately, it's gotten so I can't even read them all.
I route them into a folder called "Later" and I fib to myself that one of these days, I'll have the time to read 'em all and reply to those most deserving of replies. Well, I just checked and that folder now has over 4000 messages in it. Some date back to when I was not reading them because I had to get over to the nursing home to take care of Carolyn.
I gather those of you who still write despite a lack of replies or acknowledgement are not bothered by this. Well, I'm bothered, especially since when I do read the messages, I often find clever thinking or witty writing. I hate that someone writes something good and then it dies with me.
If you see something vital here, like if I've made one of my not-uncommon stupid errors, please let me know ASAP. Otherwise, if you're writing me more than twice a week just to tell me your response to something I've posted, please write less. It's not that your views are not interesting. In fact, it would be easier for me to skip them if they were of less interest. It's just that I'm starting to feel really bad about not being able to read them all, let alone reply to more than one or two every now and then. I really think some of you should consider having your own blogs. Once they're up and running, it's not much more of your time than you now spend writing to me…and presumably other websites.
You might seriously consider this. Anything you send me that you think is worth my time to read is probably worth the time of a lot of other people.