I’ve been the sole blogger in the family (underground bloggers excepted–you never know.) Until now. Ryan, my 24-year old nephew just started blogging about his new adventure, a year in downtown Oakland, as part of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. His writing is personal and compassionate, sprinkled with moments of biting humor and quick wit. Maybe this is the mark of his generation.

In person, my conversations with Ryan are usually friendly and short. If I get a few sentences in response to "How are you?", I’m doing pretty good. So it’s a real pleasure to read more of Ryan’s thinking and what he’s experiencing in a new role, serving a subculture of society. During his year at JVC, he’s helping homeless men use and navigate the resources provided by Society of St.Vincent de Paul, to re-enter the workforce. It’s a world I know nothing about, so I’m looking forward to more of his postings.

This underscores two things that I love about blogging:

• Blogging helps us know more about each other.
• Blogging expands my world, by learning about new worlds.

What ever did we do before blogging? Okay, I can hear it now. Well, of course, Carol, people had conversations, in person or over the phone. I still like that. And the convenience of blogging, having a conversation with many people at once, is ever appealing to me.