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I Think, Therefore I Blog

I’m not sure how a native speaker of Polish would say “I think, therefore I blog” (or, indeed, if a native speaker of Polish would be inclined to say such a thing at all), but this title was the first that came to my mind when Becky at Kinexxions tagged me with the “Thinking Blogger Award”.

I don’t often write this blog with the intent to make people think, although there have been times I’ve written articles with exactly that goal in mind. More often, I get comments and emails saying “I think you’ve made a mistake here”, and so if I get people to think about what I’ve written about my family and find errors in my analysis, I certainly benefit and so does my family history.

Well, the “Thinking Blogger Award” comes with a few rules:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think, tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all – blogs that really get you thinking!
2. The origin of the meme, is at The Thinking Blogger.
3. Display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

Simple, but a difficult choice, nonetheless.

1. My first choice was difficult, not because I doubted that the blog made me think, but because the writer recently passed away. Ken Aitken was a wonderful genealogy educator and I had only begun to get to know him when he died. He was an instructor with the National Institute for Genealogical Studies in which I am enrolled, and I was able to get to know him through the Analysis and Skills Mentoring Program there. While Ken is no longer with us, his Genealogy Education Blog is still available.
2. My second choice is someone whose writing and genealogical research I respect a great deal. Arlene Eakle provides food for thought with every entry on her blog. I found this choice difficult because I don’t know Arlene, and I don’t know if she will have the time to respond to this meme. Still, the Arlene H. Eakle Blog deserves the “Thinking Blogger Award”.
3. George Morgan’s Along Those Lines column has long been one of my favorites and his recent installments have been posted to his blog since March 2006. Well, OK, this one wasn’t a difficult choice at all because George is a good friend and mentor. I’ll be interested to see which blogs George chooses for the “Thinking Blogger Award”.
4. Schelly Talalay Dardashti’s Tracing the Tribe Blog is well written, informative, and thoughtful. I have no Jewish ancestry (at least none so far uncovered) but Schelly’s articles have relevance far beyond the stated scope of Jewish genealogy. I was fortunate to be able to hear Schelly speak at the recent Southern California Genealogy Jamboree a few weeks ago. Listening to Schelly speak was like listening to a poet read her poems aloud . Her lecture was absolutely captivating, and so is her blog.
5. Now, my last choice was the most difficult. I wanted to select a blog that was somewhat different from the other blogs I chose here. How to Survive Suburban Life certainly fits the bill. Such wonderful prose. I know very little about the author of this blog other than she is a 60 year old woman living in Canada who chose to write her blog as a record for her new granddaughter. Fortunately, she has made her blog available to all the rest of us, too.

The Thinking Blogger has an interesting post and link to an online test to find out what kind of a thinker you are . Analysis of my answere categorized me as an Analytical Visionary . I think the details provided in the analysis were pretty much on target:

• “You love to think, logically and creatively.”
• “You are most productive at work when you are solving problems.”
• “Others…are surprised when you question your own assumptions, facts and logic.”
• “You have an unassuming manner in getting people to follow what you want them to do.”

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko