Welcome to my personal webpage.
This is the Internet presence for myself, Richard Geib. It has been in existence since October 9th, 1996 and is where I work out, in a semi-public forum, my thoughts and thinking. I say “semi public” because I write first and foremost here for myself. I hope any visitor would enjoy or appreciate what I do on this site, but its purpose is more for me to enter that quiet area where I can hear my most “inner voice” and try to make sense of it. I never quite know what I think until I have taken the time, trouble, and discipline to write my thoughts down.
Hence, I write primarily for myself, but I write in a public space. Simple enough?
Most of this site was created in the early days of the Internet when I was in my middle and late twenties. Frankly, it was also a creative way to cope with the trauma surrounding the death of my mother at that time, as well as trying to work out who I was as a younger man. Who was I? What was heroism? What thoughts did I think worth thinking? What did I know? I always held the spirit of Michel de Montaigne, and his spirit of introspection in “que sais-je?” (What do I know?)
During my thirties and forties I mostly worked, and my work on the Internet was in professional spaces; and my personal webpage mostly languished. I built my career, got married, and started a family. I was busy. My posting on my personal site were few and far between.
Now well into my fifties, I write only on my blog and update my yearly resolutions. Much of my website I barely touch or look at. But I semi-continuously write for my blog, which serves as a diary of sorts. When I have a quiet moment and something on my mind, I sit down and write. I tell almost nobody, not even my immediate family; the results sometimes show up on my blog. When I finish a final draft, I post without telling anyone. If I were to share routinely with my wife and daughters what I wrote, something important would be lost. I want this space just for myself. In a noisy and chaotic world, there I find peace and clarity. Yet the irony is that I post it online.
In the age of mass social media I eschew posting on large networks, so few visit my webpage anymore. Hence, I have a certain sense of freedom here. I like it. The trend today is to post pithy or confrontational memes on Twitter or Instagram to garner eyeballs and gain attention in a social media ecosystem. I post essays in a diary format mostly for an audience of one — so it goes with this living Internet experiment of almost two and a half decades, and still going strong. I hope to continue it until I die.
Maybe it is the natural interplay of change and continuity in any human life witnessed over time in one Internet domain — my webpage, which has many layers, putting much in plain sight, if one is willing to dig.
And so, gentle reader, enjoy my words in this spirit!
And welcome to my domain.
