Okay. I can't stand it. I must play this round of "Why I Blog" meme. You can read some other personal reasons expounded by my sidebar compadres: Prairie Mary, Whisky Prajer, DarkoV, and Jim at Serotoninrain.
While working on this post composition, a mental image of Hemingway sitting at his typewriter kept popping up, interrupting my chain of thought. So,at his gentle persuasion, I am going to go with the flow and channel the fine gentleman:
1. Couple of bloggers have likened blogging to a comfy front porch in an eclectic neighborhood, or a cocktail party sans olives and paper umbrellas. Both very good analogies. For me, blogging has more of a quaint little hole-in-the-wall bar ambiance, a virtual "La Bodeguita Del Medio" , "Sloppy Joe's", or even "Cheers" quality. Each personality, each blogger, brings a unique and sometimes biting perspective to the topic of the day. So enjoyable to partake of life's quirky path with such a wide range of imaginations.
2. Hemingway once said: "There is a mystery in all great writing, and no matter how many different renditions of explanation are offered into the mix, that mystery does not dissect out."
I don't know how many of us are truly "great" writers, but I do know that most anyone on my sidebar can kick my writing ass. You don't learn to be a better writer by reading drivel; I am inspired everyday to push out, to expand my capabilities when I visit blogs that are well composed and creative. Those bloggers are my Fitzgeralds.
3. And Hemingway said this to his sisters: "Don’t be afraid to taste all the other things in life that aren’t here in Oak Park. There’s a whole big world out there full of people who really feel things . . . sometimes I think we only half live over here."
Blogging IS a whole big world full of people who really feel things; when you make that special intellectual connection with an otherwise stranger, it is an "aha!" moment that keeps you coming back.
4. The legion of expatriate talent from the Lost Generation used alcohol to bond them together; modern day bloggers use keyboards and an internet connection to achieve a somewhat healthier coming together. Though we may not be Ernest, or Gertrude, nor F. Scott, the bonding we experience cannot be denied.
5. *Aside* I never knew so many people channeled Hemingway. Who'da thunk it?
6. Like Santiago and his big marlin, blogging grabs me philosophically - gives a certain heft to my thoughts. Some of us are waiting for that big catch, but most of us just enjoy the fishing. Blogging gets into your blood, becomes a ritual to your daily routine long before you recognize it as such.
7. It's late and I think ol' Ernest has gone to bed to dream of lions. I am joining him...
Who Is Cowtown Pattie?
- Cowtown Pattie
- I was Lillie Langtry in another life, and might have a crush on Calamity Jane.
11 comments:
Well, it's important to be Ernest.
You know what, I've never read Hemingway (excepting The Old Man...). However, I think if he were alive, he would have a blog. Some posts would be incredible and some would suck wind, but we'd read them all.
I hadn't thought of the "Cheers" perspective... neat.
Love your #2. Blogging isn't competitive and yet it does drive you to try to write better and try to think, well maybe not better, (No, I dont; think we'll be seeing that ad campaign: Blogging! Yesterday's Entry Inspires Better Thinking Today for Tomorrow's Future [...as opposed to "Today's Future"]), but with a viewpoint tilted by other blogger's entries. It's not oneupmanship. I see it as a continual polishing of a gem. A written group project.
Say, I really like #4 - the blogsosphere as the New Left Bank! Tres cool, CP! (BTW, I think I should be the one to break it to you: Papa stood while typing.)
"Some of us are waiting for that big catch, but most of us just enjoy the fishing."
That's my favorite part.
(I'm loving the fishing.)
Interesting.
I began writing a blog because I wanted to write and I wanted someone to read what I wrote. I wanted to have the discipline of a writing assignment on a regular basis. I started out thinking of my blog as like a newspaper column.
Now that I have got to "know" some of my readers it has become a little different. If I were going to make an analogy today it might be to "ham" radio. I had a friend once who was a ham radio operator and communicated on a regular basis with other hams around the country, just passing on personal news and stuff.
"Blogging IS a whole big world full of people who really feel things; when you make that special intellectual connection with an otherwise stranger, it is an "aha!" moment that keeps you coming back."
There are many people to whom I am no longer a stranger (and vice versa), owing solely to the ability to share a little bit of ourselves online. It never ceases to astonish me, the human desire to make connections.
Bottom line, blogging is about the writing. Sure, it's neat to add some bells and whistles (podcasts, music, slideshows), but the technoblubber has nothing on good, old-fashioned storytelling. You've got the knack; please keep using it.
Kind of like photography isn't about cameras, it's about pictures.
- T-bone
Why, thank you, T!
I've told some whoppers in my life. In the south, tellings lies is "tellin' stories" isn't it?
LOL - But truly, thanks.
Sure am glad to read you using the term "whoppers" as I heard that word all my life, but have encountered a whole lot of people for a number of years who never heard of it and imply I just made it up.
Have to tell you it was readin' the writin' on blogs that entrapped me so that I just keep on comin' back. At first I thought it was an addiction I needed to break, then I realized, the experience was much more about human connections.
Yeah, you're a wonderful story teller CP, whether it's serious, humourous, or anywhere in between.
I STAND corrected on the preferred Hemingway writing habit....
(But my mind still has him sitting and tapping away...and hell, ain't I the one he channeled?)
*grin*
Dear CO,
Congrats (again) for getting noticed over there on Michael's Elsewhere
Again.
Sincerely,
Chopped Liver (Hold the Onions)
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