Blogging The Music
Reader Tim (whose entire comment is appended in the "continue reading" at the end of this post) has been kind enough to wonder what brings readers back and what sends readers away from a weblog that they visit with certain expectations. The issues he raises have made me revisit what Fragments is, and who I am, and how the two of these entities -- in words and pixels and flesh and bone-- live together and make up parts of the whole of life.
The blogger behind Fragments wears many hats. They include 1) the formerly-repressed creative writer seeking to find his voice; 2) the photographer with an audience from around the world now for his "slides" of the things he sees; 3) the father and grandfather wanting his offspring to have a slice of life from his times and place; 4) a grateful owner of five (or more) senses who celebrates the beauty just beyond his doors and encourages others to see and hear the familiar and ordinary in new ways; 5) the field trip leader and teacher who loves learning and can't repress his impulse to share; 6) as many have noted, blogging is an antidote to the existential loneliness we all feel, some like me in more cloistered surroundings than others, and the bonds of community certainly figure into the "hats" worn-- like you, I want to belong, be known, care and be cared for.
These threads predominate the stream of consciousness style that Fragments has become. It is a polyglot, a goulash, a "soup" if you will, of all these parts of me. But living in a world, beautiful and marvelous and full of good and excellent things as it is, it is permeated by greed and hubris and arrogance that threatens the undoing of all those hats listed above. To remain silent in the face of that which would poison the wells that we drink from is to be complicit in these acts. To restrict my vision to puffy clouds and soft puppies and snow flakes would be to create Musak and not music. There will be discords here from time to time because I feel threatened and those I care about, the planet and places I love and ways of life I cherish are at risk.
One of my favorite sayings states: A hungry man does not refuse the fish because of the bones.
I hope my readers and friends, finding here the occasional heartfelt bleat that exposes my political or spiritual biases and concerns, will simply eat around them to find bits that are palatable and nourishing.
Below, some snippets from comments and emails in response to the post earlier this week called Blog Expectations. And in the "continue reading" section, Tim's comment.
From Bill at PrairiePoint
So as it turned out it was the gardening that I most enjoyed writing about. That became the core of my blog and it attracted the interest of a few others who also blogged about gardening. Now I feel a certain obligation to write on that subject…
Quite a lot of people with gardening blogs do keep a separate blog on other topics. I've decided for the time being though to adopt as my subject matter "this is how the world looks from the perspective of a backyard gardener," which will allow me to write about just about anything.
From Trish
Thanks, Bill, because that is just exactly how I feel. These are words and pixels from a quiet corner of the world...that's the same world the rest of us live in, the one with George Bush as president and everything else that's going on. Maybe if you were more right-wing, Fred, I'd be grouching...or looking elsewhere. But I want to hear just anything you have to say.
From LoriAnne
Fred, you've found your metaphor. Several entries below this one, you wondered about blog branding: should blogs be focused on one topic (e.g. politics, place, etc), or should they focus on several.
Blogs should be like soup. They should stir together a tasty mix of randomness: a little bit of politics, a dash of daily observations, a sprinkle of childhood memories, all simmered in the broth of the present moment. Blog readers aren't looking for essays: we're looking for the lightning spark of recognition when thoughts about soup bump into memories of toothpaste commercials.
Logically, these don't belong together. Our magical minds, though, make these connections continually, and blogs should be true to that.
From Reader Evelyn
… The blog IS yours. YOU set the rules. Whatever you post, I shall continue to check your blog nearly every day because I like the "you" that I've perceived through your writings (blog and e-mails) and I like the way you write.
Some time ago I observed to you that you were braver than I. You are brave enough to post your very thoughts in your blog. Many of us do not have enough gumption to do what you routinely do. My perception of your attitude is not "Full steam ahead--damn the torpedos!" but "This is where I'm going folks--you're welcome to come with me!" I like that!
From Fragments reader Tim...
I'm wondering about your decision to include so many "political" posts lately. not angry, not happy... just thinking about it (and would invite others to join in!)
Now, on the one hand, I feel I come here to visit Floyd County once or twice a day, check out what the weather's like, and see how you've been interacting with the landscape. If nothing else, seeing something "political" is a bit jarring and seems sort out of place from the rest of the stuff you usually post.
On the other hand, I'd hate to pigeonhole anybody; I don't want to be the city boy forcing the country Southerner to talk only about the rhododendrons and ice. ("Hey, you! You can't talk about the outside world! Get back up in the mountain!")
And, of course, in some ways I feel that the more places that post about what's going on with Bush, et. al., the better. At the same time, if I didn't agree with your politics, I wonder if I would be put off by it.
One more conflicting thought and then I'll stop: I guess part of me comes here because it's usually a place un-like 99% of the other sites I visit on a daily basis - it has no political flame wars. Generally, here and my Red Sox message board are the places where I find respite from a barrage of Bad Bush News that is necessary but very depressing. The other side of that is THIS IS YOUR WEBLOG. If that's what you're thinking, who am I to stop you?
I suppose I just wanted to sound out my thoughts on this and see if anybody else had responses (Fred, in particular). I guess the important question is: what does it mean to have a genred blog? If you've chosen to have a specific format (i.e. fragments from Floyd county), does that mean things should be somehow outside the realm of relevancy; and don't take that statement out of context... politics are, of course, always relevant. But are there things that aren't? Are there things you thought about posting and then decided didn't fit? I know, for example, that Marie over at the Blue Ridge Blog often mentions that there is a particular thing she wants her blog to be, and tries to avoid bringing other things into it.
[Oh, one last thing. These questions have nothing to do with the quality of the political posts, because it's always stuff I find fascinating.]
Comments
Fred, I have been away from my own blog and reading others' for some time...it's a tough season, what with all the death S. and I have had recently, lying heavy on our hearts. It's been a turning-inward thing. Happily, I think it will pass before too long. So I just want to say thanks for YOU, this place, anything & everything that comes with it. Blessings to you and yours.
Posted by: peggy | December 24, 2003 11:00 AM
Hm.. I always seem to post about a week later, making it unlikely anyone but Fred will see, and I apologize... but hi, Fred :)
Since basically everybody who responded said that they preferred blogs be a total reflection of the person who keeps it, I'll have to amp up my own reservations; merely for the sake of conversation, of course!
So many things happen in our lives every day that it would be impossible to capture them all. A blog should not be an attempt to do so. It should be a way to focus the most important aspects of your day into a cohesive and significant unit. The posts on 12/14 12/19 didn't do that. They were just links related to politics, but said little about Fred himself. I think a much more succesful post would have focused only on the religious aspect of the posts: what's religion like in Floyd, Fred? Do you go to church?
There was almost a great moment there, because you connected Cheney shooting hundreds of pheasants to God; that's very revealing to me. For you, there's obviously a reverence for all things "natural," but it only went so far. Push that further, and talk about YOUR reactions to these things. Throwing up a handful of links with a sparse comment is not at all what Fragments from Floyd is about. I will grant that politics is surely an important part of your life, but the post wasn't anything about you. In the end, it was just about Bush et. al., and I think that's what really stuck out at me. It just took me all this time to realize it.
You can, and should, talk about politics as often as you want, as long as it relates to you.
Thanks everybody for considering these questions... very interesting :)
Posted by: tim | December 30, 2003 2:17 PM