Blogging, I assume I'll wake up each morning, utterly empty-headed one moment, but very soon thereafter in possession of three or four ideas juicy enough to share with thousands of people. If it happens often enough, I don't worry that it will continue to happen, just like I don't worry that the next time I feel like standing up, the will to do it and the accomplishment will occur simultaneously.
What if there is no new flow of ideas? Maybe some day, some physical ailment will suddenly afflict my brain, and I'll mean to stand up and the familiar response will not take place. I'll be left to marvel that I ever knew how to do that. It won't surprise me. I plan to think: yes, this is the sort of thing I always knew could happen to me and now it has.
By the same token, I could open up the laptop and the newspaper some morning and find no inspiration, nothing coming out of me in response to that. I'll think: of course, that was going to happen sooner or later.
Guestblogging over at GlennReynolds.com this week, I'm having something of that feeling. I have ideas that I feel good about putting here -- that cat-borne parasite that makes you act like a cat, for example. But I'm inhibited from putting things over there. Nothing jumps out and seems right. I have a different threshold about what to put over there, where I'm a guest and writing under someone else's name. This place seems so cozily familiar by comparison.
Over here, I have a nice group of commenters. There are no comments at GlennReynolds.com, but I do get email. It tends to be quite different from the response of my readers here. Today, someone wrote an email that ended: "Neither you nor Jethro will respond because you're both whores, liars, and cowards." ("Jethro," in this emailer's parlance, is Glenn Reynolds!) What made us "whores"? Just blogging about Kerry's college grades. Yesterday's post about Clinton led someone to write: "Are you proud of what you've written? Brother, you are sick. This is the best of your sick, sick life. The horror..."
Now, I've got to go collect my thoughts, command my brain to think. It should respond, but maybe... Who knows?
१४ जून, २००५
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What ever happened to respectful disagreement? Why all the hate and foul language? I just don't understand why people feel the need to belittle others on the 'net.
I may not always agree with you on specific issues, but I value your insight and find your blog one of the more facinating outposts on the world wide web.
Eddie: The comments have been great, exceeding my most optimistic expectation. I had comments about a year ago, but I didn't require registration. They were awful, the worst experience I'd had blogging.
Leland: I rarely blog just to point something out. I need to feel I have something new to add. And on GlennReynolds.com the form is to write a longish post, so that raises my normal threshold.
I'm sorry that in venturing away from your cyber-home, you've had to endure that garbage, Ann.
But your guest-blogging gig gives real insight into what mainstream celebrities endure on a daily basis. In fact, while I hope that I would never use the kinds of nasty invective you cited, your experience also chastens me for the indifference I often feel regarding the actual humanity of celebs. A little of Jesus' Golden Rule ethic---"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"--would go a long way toward improving public discourse, not to mention the often tasteless late night talk show monologues, in this country.
May the commenters on your blog always display respect for you and others, even when registering differing opinions. It's possible, as someone has said, to disagree without being disagreeable...or hateful.
I should correct my previous statement that the comments a year ago "were awful." Most of them were just fine. A few were awful. A small minority ruined it for everyone.
Now, I've got to go collect my thoughts, command my brain to think. It should respond, but maybe... Who knows?
Only your brain can command your brain to think. So first you have to command your brain to command your brain to think. And so on. Think about that. ("UW Prof. Ann Althouse was found in a coma-like state....")
You write: "What if there is no new flow of ideas?" I recently coined a term for this anxiety -- I call it blogiety.
Daniel: I'd prefer blogsiety or blogxiety. But that implies worrying. I'm not worried. For me, it would be maybe ablogsia or dysblogism or blogopause.
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