I'm working on changing my online habits--thinking about how I use the internet, and how it uses me. What I dislike the most about the world wide web, and what scares me, is how rapidly it has consumed so many aspects of my life. Rebecca Solnit articulates my feelings in this wonderful essay.
But I've missed this place, this web log--and it feels like an actual place, and not just words and pictures on a screen. I picture a spiderweb with tiny dots on it--I'm one of the dots, and you are one too.
Recently, when I realized the raspberries were blackberries I thought of Blackberry Picking.
"...red ones inked up and that hunger
sent us out with milk-cans, pea-tins, jam-pots
where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots."
The last time I posted paintings, Steve commented, "I'm really motived artistically by seeing these. I suddenly want to see how much red I can add to the greens before they're no longer green. Moss, olive, khaki, etc."
Despite my passion for the color green, I didn't see that I'd been painting mostly brighter tones, that I'd missed an entire family of shades. I thought about that the next time I painted. (Thanks, Steve.)
Despite my passion for the color green, I didn't see that I'd been painting mostly brighter tones, that I'd missed an entire family of shades. I thought about that the next time I painted. (Thanks, Steve.)
I keep looking, and there's always something more to see.
Thank you for the link to the fine essay, Jen. Reading through it as I paid my bills and repainted the shed, it struck me that blogging for me is time neutral - it takes time to be involved in the happy bubble of friends and fellow bloggers and commentators, but also the subject matter of the blogging often gives me what Rebecca so aptly describes as 'a more stately sense of time'.
ReplyDeleteWell put. I recently discovered R.S. and am so glad I did.
ReplyDeletethanks for the essay link. I haven't read it all yet. but I think I get the point. it's sad that communication has lost some of its depth. and it's why I'm sticking with my blog. a real blog. and not a micro blog like tumblr or twitter where it's only snippets and pics. I also believe that every development usually ends forming its own opposition. people will rediscover some value in single tasking and real conversation. and eventually we will find a middle ground between what was and what would have been the opposite extreme of that.
ReplyDeleteI think/hope you are right about the middle ground.
DeleteI love blogs that convey the personality of the writer. Yours is so far and wide ranging, just like you!
Lovely thoughtful post Jen. We are heading over to your side of the pond tomorrow, looking forward to seeing New England!
ReplyDeleteHave fun--I look forward to reading about it! I am heading in another direction tomorrow. Have been on the move a lot lately...
DeleteHow nice to find someone has been inspired by your work! (Although I often find other people's blogs inspiring; I'm not sure I credit them enough.)
ReplyDeleteI find nourishment in my favorite blogs.
DeleteIteresting essay. It's full of contradictions just as all this "social" media is. Funny that it's called social when as she points out people are standing there next to each other immersed in their tiny screens. Nothing rattles me more than sitting in a restaurant and seeing a group of diners all texting and tweeting and ignoring each other. I find the Y generation to be somewhat socially inept, and Twitter frankly is a nightmare, so many people just go off on it without thinking. I also resonate with her comment on reading books, it has become harder with all these devices attached to us. Progress I guess. This is probably the longest comment I've ever left anywhere. Now for your green shades, thank you, we are looking to paint our house and I'm leaning towards green, some of those shades are very helpful!
ReplyDeleteGreen is a bold choice for a house--I love it!
DeleteThe phones/ipads at restaurants drives me crazy too. I feel old.
I think I understand your idea about sharing your time for computer.
ReplyDeletePC has quite opposite aspects, convenient and inconvenient extremely...Your post let methink as always.
I love your thought that we're all dots on a world wide spiderweb. I'll be thinking about that all night.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes. Thank you for painting my greens for me. The lovely deep greens of the forest floor and fall. I find these complex colors very soothing.
Jen... You always give us such interesting "food for thought." Over a long 4 day weekend, we were away from the convenience of instant news, emails, 500 tv channels, and social media. Spending these days in a cabin devoid of wifi, HD tv, etc was both refreshing and oppressing. Even we "senior citizens" have come to measure our days on sound bytes and facebook posts! The lovely scenery of the lower Appalachians eased the need for instant gratification. The Cherohala Skyway and the Tail of the Dragon provided a sweet diversion, but here I am.. Glued to my ipad! Smiles to you from South Georgia! Susan
ReplyDeleteI hope the refreshing outweighed the oppressing. I was in that part of the country once, and there's sort of a magical ancient feel to it--timeless--as I recall.
DeleteAs a senior technophobe, keeping blogging at my own pace is all I can do now. That's good enough for me. What encourages me to keep doing is someone like you who makes me feel I am one of "dots on world wide spiderweb". We are connected worldwide.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing "Blackberry Picking". I like that.
I'm so glad that you do blog! You enrich and widen my world with your beautiful, thoughtful posts. I like that you blog at your own pace. Maybe that's the key to what I'm struggling with--to set my own pace, on the internet.
DeleteJust blurted out a long windy comment about letters v texting, but it digressed.
ReplyDeleteI love visiting your 'place'.
Maybe there's a metaphor to be found in long comment disappearing into the cosmos?
DeleteWhew, I finally got here. I haven't read the essay yet,I'm still digesting your words and the comments.
ReplyDeleteI went two weeks without blogging. It was fairly strange. But since I got to spend time with real live bloggers, I know it is not just a fantasy world.
True connections are made. Sometimes we might know more about a person than their partners or close friends, the details, the process of working out one's life.
Better sign off before the cloud takes this long comment away...
xo Jane
Yes, to everything!
DeleteI love your gentle blog that takes me half way around the world, bringing colour and teaching me thinks I never knew.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do not like is the 'bare all' of Facebook and Twitter etc, and 'texting not talking'. I do not need any of this in my life.
In order to win back some me time I have reduced blog posts to around one a week, but will not stop because I enjoy it. I love the process of writing, taking photos and often learning something new myself. I generally only find time to read blogs once or twice a week too, and that means I only read the ones I really enjoy, like yours! However, I have stopped looking at Facebook and only check my phone once or twice a day. My friends now realise that if I don't answer an urgent text they need to phone and talk to me ... so much nicer!