Thursday, May 17, 2007

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
THIS YEAR's SPRING POP-QUIZ...


For those of you who have been counting the months, waiting for me to talk about something [anything!] beside my obsession with the Goat, here is the moment you have been waiting for... I have posted a couple of times that I tend to worry about people who I get to know through their blogs who suddenly disappear.

Just stop posting
. Or close their blogs down. In at least one case, I hear that there is a book deal in the offing, and the deal required free access to go away. That makes a certain amount of sense to me. But in the larger scheme of things:

Why do people start blogging?
Why do they stop blogging?
Why do WE [you know who I mean] start blogging?
Why do WE [you know who I mean] stop blogging?

I can't really answer either of those questions, myself. I started blogging because I thought I had to open a blog to comment on "Drew's Next Step," the successor to my first blog-love, the delightfully named "ClosetMan." Still my all-time favorite, by the way.

[Drew, are you out there? PHONE HOME! Let somebody on the block know how you are doing!]

So I am at a particular disadvantage here. I do hear that stopping blogging has sometimes been a precondition of another chance in marriage; my refusal to stop blogging certainly had SOMEthing to do with end of my marriage -- Isis said that I could no longer be trusted. Actually, I'm not sure what that means, since I never lied to her, never failed to tell her anything, and even gave her the URL of this blog. Perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life, but not trustworthy? Give me a break. Give me a @#$%-ing break.

Well, I actually do know what she meant. She could no longer trust me EMOTIONALLY. God knows she was right there. First, there was Tom of Finland and Gengoroh Tagame, and then three in a row:

the Pig Demon, Flip in his Motel Room Phase, and then the Far-flung Voice. Followed, after a decent interval for separation and depression, by the equally violent and equal over-reaction to my first sight of the Goat... [sigh] Anyone else seeing a pattern here?

I had become a loose cannon. I suspect I had always been a pretty loose cannon, but I had kept myself in place with a lot of carefully forged chains, and when they came off... Katie, bar the door!

But back to blogging:

I really do hope that the reason that people [that is, "people"] have stopped blogging is that they have acquired better things to do, involving actual people within actual physical reach. I suspect this is often the case. I happen to know, however, that in many cases it is NOT. Those are the cases where I worry. [Shit, I worry about ALL of them. It's what I do.]

But I noticed about a year ago that the lives of many of the bloggers I had been following for months began to hit similar events at the same time. It kind of creeped me out.

March 30, 2006:

Has it occurred to anyone else in our little corner of the blogosphere that it might be a little odd how many of us there are, and that most of us/you seem to have started blogging around the same time?

Did Blogger change its ways of doing business when you started? Or is it just in the air and water? Was there a sudden upsurge in men that couldn't live a lie, or in men who suddenly couldn't lie to their wives, or in men who needed to start writing again, or who are trying to work through their issues in therapy ?

Doesn't it strike anyone else as odd that the upsurge should be in three or four of these categories at once?

For the record, I make my first visit to Alone-Type Therapy, as opposed to Marital, next week, and for once I am looking forward to it rather than dreading it, because I have a real issue: how to overcome HER fear of what lies ahead, and how to persuade HER that I can come out to our children without bringing the world to an end... or without bringing an end to all the worlds we can live in -- one is surely destined to end in fire and death...

Well, with that cheerful thought, and the fondest of greetings to Drew, Ian, Sean, and the Pig Demon, I remain ever yours,

The Troll That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Where is Drew? Where is Ian? Where is Sean?
I know where the Pig Demon is... poor fellow...

So if there is in fact anyone out there still reading this,
here's what I want to know:

WHAT made you start blogging?

If you have stopped, WHAT made you stop?

Post your answers here as comments...
and: THANK YOU.
.

6 comments:

  1. Ah, THERE'S the link!

    I blog because it's become a part of my life now. I started because I wanted to tell my story -- something I'd never done in its entirety before my blog. Now, I don't think I could stop if I tried.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Now, I don't think I could stop if I tried." Me neither, but a lot of people sure do; I noticed the other day that almost all the links on my sidebar were to inactive blogs.

    I guess I need to clean house...

    T

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  3. Was in my motel room phase? Past tense?

    Unfortunately it looks like I'm still there!

    Um, I tend to blog when I'm either in excruciating emotional pain or when I have a little extra time on my hands...and more often the former than the latter.

    I wish it were different but so far it ain't.

    F

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've added some new people to my sidebar -- give them a look.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Why? I can't answer for others.

    For me:

    Why? Because I found individuals with common and/or interesting attitudes and/or experiences. It's provided an outlet to converse about topics I've never discussed with anyone.

    Why? Because I can't let it dictate my real life.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Paul:

    Ah, real life.

    Well, there you have it.

    T@C

    ReplyDelete