You know one challenge about writing a blog is you really need to think about what will interest your readers.
On the one hand I want to write something that will attract interest and comments and feedback. On the other hand, I am determined to be honest, to be me and to be authentic. So, to find the balance of writing for the “public” and writing for myself is probably the trick I am seeking to resolve.
I’ve often said I’m writing for myself and more and more as I get into reminiscing, I’m thinking I’ll set up a database of my articles and index the dates and times and events I’ve been involved in.
I just went back to my old diaries of 1983 and 1984. Yes, I have my journals and plan to use them as support for my eventual memoirs. Yet I was disappointed, but not really surprised, to discover that all I wrote during the PWPA conference I organized in 1984 was that it occurred. As so often in my exciting life, the most exciting things don’t get written about because I’m too busy doing them, not writing about them!
So all my memories of the drama, the thrill, the excitement of the three day conference are in my head and have not yet been committed to paper. Even now, as I recall, I have no doubt that my version of the story is accurate, yet you know how memories change with time and I’d love to get some feedback from other participants of the time. Like maybe a Facebook entry, or a YouTube video? But no, it was before that time. Don’t rub it in. Life was exciting for us too then when we were your age. Even if you can’t find the records in Facebook or Twitter.
So, you see my perceived audience is my own kids, and thankfully, some of them actually do read my blog! And I think I might have a chance with their peers. In other words, I just went back in time to when I was 30 years old and want to share some stories about my life.
On Monday when Josef works in the afternoon, we joined the Austrian Unification prayer meeting and I was tasked to provide the reading. Now in my last blog https://lilly.fam-gundacker.eu/blog/6917/#more-6917 I mentioned our readings of Father and Mother Moon’s speeches.
I am now fascinated as I have religiously subscribed to Bob Proctor’s programme on self-development, and he stresses the need for constant study. And what did Reverend Moon teach us? He asked us to come together for study and prayer, which Josef and I do. Yet now when we pray together, we have to tee up the time because I also have a buddy meeting.
Anyhow, apart from our personal/family prayer and study which Josef and I do together, we also have a community prayer and study which we call Hon Dok Hae or HDH for short. It comes from a Korean term which I guess maybe roughly translates into meeting for prayer and study. So, since the Corona pandemic we have lots of HDH groups which have sprung up and one of them is the weekly community group which entails all Austrian members of the Unification movement who feel moved to participate. And this week it was my turn to lead the show.
As it so happens, we were reading from Chambumo Gyeong, a textbook of speeches by Father and Mother Moon. We were in a part where Father Moon talks about the Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) and how he called the professors to Korea after a conference in the USA in the 1980s. I was officially a Researcher and actually the chief secretary of PWPA. So I felt the urge to share about my experience in Australia at that time. You see when I came to Europe in 1988, I had changed my name because we got married in America and now I was a pregnant wife. My role had changed and my perceptions had changed with my new environment.
Now as a retired international civil servant I have the urge again to just go back a little in time. I’m appreciating all I experienced. I’m also looking forward to share a little more with you.
