Friday, June 05, 2009

What's Happening Here?


You may (or may not) have noticed I’m having some trouble coming up with blog posts. The frequency has definitely declined. Not sure why.

Sometimes I think if my blog was anonymous and/or I was a less private person, it would be easier to come up with ideas. I could blog about what I’ve done each day, reveal my deepest, darkest secrets and what I truly think about life. (My own and in general.)

And then I think again.

You’d be bored to tears reading about my daily activities. And I am very much a private person. Were my blog anonymous, I still couldn’t reveal all. I think even the occasional personal posts I write are always somewhat cryptic.

I wonder how much I’ve actually revealed about myself these past few years? Have I let it slip or have you managed to figure out that I’m actually 80 years old? That I’m an ex-con who wasted years of her precious youth in the women’s penitentiary for a crime of passion? That I’ve been married four times? That some of my posts have been blatantly plagiarized? (Okay, that one is not true – plagiarism is a sin to me.)

Although I think I’ve just been giving you the tip of the iceberg, inadvertently I may have been exposing the entire enormous ice cube.

Stop the press. I AM RAMBLING. This is not a coherent post.

See? I am having trouble…

(geez…i hesitate to even publish this…we’re having a crisis of confidence here…)

13 comments:

Sherry said...

You scallywag you...I wondered about that prison pallor of yours!!! I think you think too much...too much thinking not enough writing!! :)

laughingwolf said...

methinks sumbunny is suffering from the typical canucistanian malaise, beth... but we also recover in ways totally unexpected, as i know you will :)

laughingwolf said...

CANUCKISTANIAN... rats :(

Bee said...

Actually, I haven't noticed that you were short of material!

I've often thought, though, how easy it would all be if I just spilled out my TRUE, unedited thoughts. (But my mother reads my blog, so it ain't gonna happen.)

In these instances, there are always those foolproof things: talk about the weather; take pics of the flowers in your garden; take a trip in order to acquire new material! The funny thing is, once I "like" a person I am quite happy with whatever they want to write about. Just as some real-life conversations are just idle chat.

oreneta said...

I too find there are times when I have to scrounge for posts, and they generally aren't as good, and times when I have backlogs of them, literally I write three a day and have to save then up.

It must have to do with us ourselves and where we are in our lives as well as how we are feeling...it is interesting. I do like the basic premise of posting every day, for me. There is an element of discipline, it is not a question of waiting for the muse, so to speak, so much as sitting down and getting to work. Obviously that is not what everyone wants from a blog, but I like it a lot.

It is always good to hear your voice, rambling or not.

The Bodhi Chicklet said...

Often there are times of inner reflection, things that are percolating but you choose to let simmer. That's all OK. There are no rules for regularity of posting, but we all like a daily dithering. So feel free to just throw anything out there. Or not.

Seraphine said...

prison fascinates me, and it horrifies. i'm 100% sure i'd hate it.

Cipriano said...

Beth [<-- IF that is your real name!!...... just kidding...] as you know, we've talked about this before, I am a great believer in the value of anonymity when it comes to blogging. To an extent. I happen to believe that we [bloggers] can be even MORE "real" [as opposed to less real and/or fake] if we maintain the right level of anonymity in our blogs.
This is because as we share about the stuff that is meaningful to us, the people that actually KNOW US in our day-to-day lives [and are reading us] are likely to accentuate the inconsistencies that will invariably be a part of our expression. These things show up like black specks on a white sheet, and those that know us will not let us get away with it.
When it comes down to it [what I am really getting at here] is... why do I need to tell someone that I am going to work with all day, or someone who is a close personal friend... why do I need to tell that person something ON MY BLOG..... when the fact is, I am going to be with them later, or at least talk on the telephone or email, and can share that jazz with them in person, or in those other means?
Blogging [in my opinion] is supposed to serve a different purpose, and the amazing thing is that we can be even more real in what we put out there, if we do not have to worry about the criticism we may receive from those that "KNOW US".

An example might be [for instance]... let's say I have one or two really right-wing ideas in the predominance of my left-wing personality. And one day I get fired-up and I want to express this conservatism. Those that know me may pipe up and say, "Hey, wait a minute! What the hell are you saying here? I thought you believed...[blah-blah-blah...]"
Or maybe I'm single, and yet I have profound views about marriage.
Or maybe I'm not at all in love, yet want to write poetry about people that are very much in love.

These are examples of inconsistencies that people we know are going to jump upon, and mention one way or another, when they see us expressing our diverse thoughts.
Truth is, nothing pisses me off more than when I will take two hours to write out a personal vignette of something that happened to me that day, and then I will receive a response from someone I know saying something like, "There's no way that happened to you, man! You never drive down that street!"
Point is, it is very unlikely that someone who does NOT know me [on a day-to-day basis] is going to say such a thing.

One last thing [man, this is an essay now!].
Even when proper anonymity is in place, I don't think it is right for a blog to be either a whipping post or the place we go to for our primary moments of catharsis.
What I mean is, a good rule of thumb as to whether or not what I am revealing is appropriate [to be revealed] is how it answers a simple question:
Is it humorous at all?
Most importantly, is it humorous TO ME, the writer?
If so, it's probably OK to put it out there.
But if the answer is "No, it seems a bit too serious" [to be revealed] then well, it probably is.

Maggie May said...

Blogs are flux, ebb and flow.

a mouthy irish woman? ridiculous! said...

your not rambling. you totally had me sucked in with the crimes of passion thing! do tell do tell!!!!!

Anonymous said...

That was not rambling!

I tend to read blogs which don't display one's private life. Like you, I'm private and while I don't mind saying I love Coke Zero and have a thing for House MD, I have never put pictures of my loved one, you guys don't know what I did yesterday etc.

But this kind of blog takes a lot of imagination to run!

So take a deep breath, don't pout pressure on yourself and inspiration will come!

At least I hope because I like your writing ;)

Anonymous said...

I think it comes in waves. Sometimes, I slow down, but seem to constantly come up with blog posts in my head (that never make it to the computer). I say just go with the flow and enjoy the experience.
XXXXX

Mary-Laure said...

I feel the same sometimes. And then tons of idea overwhelm me!