A nephew's influence

It is with a lukewarm, viscous mixture of self-pity, self-loathing, shame and mild depression that I begin typing this entry. It's been more than a quarter of year since I've updated this blog, although I'm sure I've written some things. I somehow must have clicked on the wrong button or something and it never got posted. (It was great stuff, too. You would have loved it. Unfortunately, I can't remember any of it.)

So imagine my surprise this morning when I mistakenly clicked on the wrong title in "Bookmarks" and was taken to the long-neglected "Never Quite Enough." There was a comment! And instead of the usual online messages I receive, profanity-laced tirades encouraging me to -- I'm paraphrasing here -- to indulge in self love, it was a message from my nephew. (It was posted a month ago. I had to blow the dust off of it in order to read it.)

He challenged me to post more, and even promised to match me update for update. I promptly went to his blog, , and noticed that he hadn't updated it since Dec. 20. And in fact, his last post is about the guilt he's felt about not posting. He should feel guilty about this. He is living an interesting, exotic and vibrant life, and there are many people here who care about him and want to know more about it. So by doing this update, I hope that Mark will update his blog, and we'll all be richer for it.

I should tell you that I have been thinking about updating this blog for some time. But there have been so many hurdles preventing me from writing. The most significant: It's so much easier to not write than it is to write.

But I'm not one to step away from a challenge. OK, I usually am one to step away from a challenge (or run, if necessary.) But not this time.

It occurs to me that this is an example of the powerful influence friends and family have on us. The concept is outlined in a book called "Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives," by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler. The authors posit that we are influenced not only by the people we hang around, but the people they hang around. This means that if you hang around around people who read a lot, you'll probably read a lot. If you hang around heavy drinkers, you're probably drunk right now.

(From now on, I will only hang out with smart, urbane, thin and rich people. I only hope that they don't read the book.)

So Mark has influenced me to write. And now hopefully, he'll be influenced to write. And it's the dawning of a new day.