I think that it is particularly fitting that this looks like being the last goal from my list of 100 that I will achieve within the 100 week period, which comes to an end tomorrow.
My whole journey started when life blindsided me back in November of 2005, and that event eventually led to me listing my life for sale on eBay.
During the run up to the auction, after the huge amount of publicity that my sale received internationally, I received many emails of support from people all over the world. Many had gone through similar experiences. Some people had had to deal with much worse than events that I was trying to come to terms with.
But one thing in common with many of the emails that I received was that people knew what it was like to be blindsided by life.
On the forum pages someone mentioned that people like us should start the Blindsided Network. I can’t remember who this was, and the forums have now been buried under an avalanche of spam postings, which is a shame, as there was some interesting and entertaining material in those forums. If I ever get the time, and can find my passwords I might go back and dig the forums out from under the avalanche, and delete all the spam one day.
Anyway, I really liked the phrase Blindsided Network, and went and registered the website www.BlindsidedNetwork.com, unsure of what I might do with it. Once I started to create the list of 100 goals, I decided that one of those goals should be to set up a support forum for others who had been “blindsided”.
And so here it is. There are still a couple of things that need a little polishing yet, but I hope to have these resolved soon. I need to sort out the blog page, and the colours on the forum page too, as well as embed the forum page into the website properly.
A few people have found the forum without me even mentioning it, so there are already a few postings. So, I invite you to join in if you have ever been “blindsided” by life – and let’s face it, who hasn’t?
I have more to write on there too, some thoughts on the positive outcomes from my experience, and the journey that followed.
I used the phrase “blindsided”, quoting from Baz Luhrmann’s “The Sunscreen Song”, which offers the following thought: “The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.”
Thanks to everyone who emailed me messages of support and encouragement during my eBay auction, and to all who have continued to follow my adventures since then. I hope that life only ever blindsides you in the nicest possible ways.
Update 2020 – The Blindsided website is no longer in existence.
