the blog about blogging

so, i never really know what to think about the concept of blogging. thanks to the inquisitive mind of some friends, it's on my mind again lately. I've sat down to decide where i think things fall on the topic for me a number of times now and still, I don't have much to show. I love letters. This alone makes me a prime canidate to hate blogging. I love sending and receiving letters and I love reading collections of letters with my heart. (Emily Dickinson "Selected Letters" is a fav) I don't want this tradition to be lost and in advance I refuse to ever read a book of emails. ever. I almost never send a package without sending a letter with it, but other than that, i'm not doing much to keep this alive. i need to get on that. For me, blogging is an interesting phenomenon too because i don't edit them and i almost never re-read them before i post. this is dangerous, but i find if i do, i start thinking too much about it. Most writing that is presented in an accessible, public way seeks a specific purpose and as a result is endlessly edited. Not that this is a bad thing, just a fact. Even in the most benign scenario, this process subtly distorts journalism, poetry, or whatever the medium is. You find yourself almost unconsciously writing to please a handful of people. It would be naive to say that I could write completely unaffected and unconcerned by and for whoever may happen to read this. But my intention is to try my best to avoid such.

It's really interesting to read friends' blogs. They are always thoroughly imbued with the temper of their writer. Some blogs read just as the author speaks. Some blogs are considerably more serious or somber than the author ever seems in person, and some are endlessly positive despite the author's general disposition in person. Some blogs fill in details of stories you have heard only the frame-work for. There's something to blogging that offers you a skape-goat. It says, "if you get bored out of your mind, you can just stop reading" where conversation frowns on leaving mid-sentence. This can be dangerous and threatens to work against real friendship and deep community.

Now if you know me well, or even at all, you probably know I love technology. You probably also know I love being outside ... saaay... in the woods. I love both, but need to be more aware and honest about the role of technology in my life and culture. I do think technology leads to an excessive need to be constantly stimulated. This is something I've thought about in raising children. I grew up in a rural area where i didn't have any friends who lived nearby. This rarely bothered me not because I had anything figured out, but b/c i didn't know anything else, thus when I saw my friends it was always a sweet time. We have DVD players on in the headrests during the 10 min drive home from school. It boggles the mind. Now, Don't think I don't think this is simultaneously really super cool, b/c i do... it just necessitates a wisdom in using these things wisely. I'm scared of a generation who with just a moment of silence says they're bored. Humo Kais said "They aren't bored enough yet. If they get bored enough, they'll imagine something to do." buuuut seriously folks.

Marva Dawn champions, "If you have technology, and it keeps escalating, you will have a corresponding decrease in intimacy." You want intimacy, but you know technology, so you reverse the poles and you technologize your intimacy and intimize your technology. So, that's why we have to advertise cars with a cozy scene of a family going on a picnic, phone commercials that show family and friends talking with warm backgrounds trying to convince us that it's just like being there. But we know it is not. Oh how we know.

I'm still thinking this through, so we're going sans-concluding paragraph on this day. sorry, kids.

Forgive us for our attempts to restore balance in our lives.
Fill us with an eagerness to pour out ourselves b/c you have poured out yourself first.