As I'm pretty sure I have written before, Duolingo has sucked up some of the time and energy that used to be devoted to the blog. This provides me with a bit of an ongoing quandry: is it better to allocate time to an artefact that will outlive me (my mind immediately races to Pushkin's riff on Horace's ode to a monument) or to an activity aimed at maintaining brain plasticity and functionality in the present?
A lot of thoughts swirl here. First and foremost, who cares? Since I have spent only marginal time and effort promoting my blog, the distinction between attention-craving and strictly edifying activity is pretty much effaced on first blush.
Then again, I care. The blog is much more me than are the languages, which are just another way of interfacing with the world and others. But language study is, by its nature, highly respectful of and inviting to others, it facilitates outreach and going out. That in the end is why I should not let it go.
Though both activities, it must be owned, stop me from actually getting out and meeting other humans at this time of day, which is something I used to do in the earlier days of my financial planning practice and which is in fact really horizon opening. Duly noted.
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