Tamar Jacobson blogs at Mining Nuggets. Today marks the beginning of her sixth year practicing the blogger’s art.

Congratulations for staying the course Tamar! I understand your feelings when you say,

This morning, as I look back at the very beginning of blogging, I feel as if it has been more than just five years. The Internet became a great friend to me. I have learned so much through writing these two blogs, and have connected with amazing people all over the world. Writing in the blogs has given me the expression I desperately needed during some very difficult and lonely days when we first moved to Philadelphia from Buffalo. But more than all that, I discovered that I really and truly like to write. I adore having a public forum to write to. I do not know who reads me, and, although my audience is not as great as many other bloggers I know, it is important for me that others read what I write. At times, it feels as if I have something important to say, and that it is worth sharing with others. Indeed, I want to be heard. I do not want to be invisible with what I say or think …

“Authenticity” is a concept that many find ephemeral these days. Sometimes it is more easily described with an example than with language lubricated by postmodern relativism. You write from the heart and provide us all with a good example of how to share our experiences authentically.

In 2024, as I struggle to revitalize my own blog in an expanded online world, I can wish for no better example of the way forward than “Mining Nuggets.”