Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The New Deal

Here's the new deal: I'm going to make the effort to post less. It will require effort, because I'm drawn to doing this.

But I need to learn more and expound less. This is all ego-driven, and I'm doing it because at some level I just enjoy hearing the sound of my own voice.

Every culture has a variation of the saying, 'Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.'

I have mentioned the poet Cold Mountain more than once. What I write isn't poetry, but in the past year I've exceeded his entire lifetime output, and haven't come close to matching his insight or wisdom.

Let's see if I can get this blog down to posting four days a week, for starters: let's say Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Today is Wednesday, so I won't be adding anything until Friday.

At least that's the plan.

See you Friday.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please read my sister's blog, "mindovermary" (linked from my page). Her most current post is about blogging and its complexity from a blogger's point of view. Also, please notice my link on Blogblah!!! to an Andrew Sullivan thread on 'intimacy' via internet. Blogging is, in many ways, like another addiction for me. Even when I'm full of remorse and regret for something I've revealed, I'm still drawn to write more and I've been at it for more than a year now on my own blog and was an almost daily participant on other blogs before I started my own.
I do think that it gives the blogger a false sense of intimacy with your readers -- unknown as they may be -- at exactly (!) the level with which you can live on the edge of self exposure. Even when I write about politics or science or some other random topic, there's something of me in each post. You've put yourself out there.
I also think there's something to Mary's idea that is a matter of self expression that wants out, almost independent of choice. Blogging is one part of Dada's notion that art will destroy art. It obliterates the need for me to read by allowing me to write. I don't need to identify with the protagonist of the novel nor do I need the faux suspense of "what will happen next?". I am my own protagonist and the joy and curse of being alive is never really knowing what will happen next -- it's aways suspense-full when you view it that way.
One final thing before I give up my soapbox: I tend to think in paragraphs. Few people (including me) are willing to let someone verbally draw out a thought all the way through the syllogism or analogy. My blog is a place where I can be precise and complete in my view without being interrupted. I think that's something we kind of share. you have thinks you'd like to "talk" about, but there aren't many venues for extended discussion among your close associates for some of the topics that interest you most.
Besides, you dispense with the ugly necessity of lying in response to "how'veyabeen?".

Nina said...

Dude, it's like Saturday now.



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Anonymous said...

Per BlogBlahs request:

I wouldn't blog for love or money but reading them gives me something to do while I drink my coffee every morning. They are better than CNN.com.

I usually have a sad feeling for bloggers (and even more, Internet daters). They all seem......something, (sad, depressed, urgent, angry, DESPERATE???). But, am I not all these things because I read them?

Why don't bloggers just keep a journal?

My final comment is the primary reason I would never blog: the future. If you give the world too much information someday it is likely to bite you in the ass. You may not believe you're going for that job with The World Health Organization but someday you may. Any potential employer who reads any blogs I read regularly (this one, BlogBlah, Karmic Irony, etc.) would NEVER hire the blogger for many reasons. Potential lover? Oooooh, I don't think so after clicking on to most of what I read.

When in doubt do without.

With that said, thanks for the entertainment. Mike C., John L., Nina, everyone, are all very cool, fun, smart people. I just worry about thier privacy sometimes.

Have a good day.