Blogging

For the past few weeks I have been very sporadic about writing blog entries.  There could be several excuses, but generally the reason is that I haven't forced myself to sit at the keyboard and write.  I can't think of a topic, so after sitting there a half hour or more without any words, I quit and either quilt, read, or find some other activity.  Such as watching TV with my wife.

I've thought about stopping writing the blog altogether, but just can't seem to finalize that decision.  I've almost concluded that sporadic writing is better than not writing.

Two weeks ago I was playing golf with a fellow I've never been paired with before.  We kind of explored each other's background, and in that he asked about my hobbies.  Quilting, blogging, reading was my answer.  We talked a while about why I quilt, and after that he asked how many daily readers I my blog had.  I answered somewhere between 12 and 20, with occasional spikes around 40.  "Oh", he said, "You have a family blog."

Two weeks later, I am still thinking about that response.  No, this isn't a family blog.  In fact, I would bet that the only family person who reads it regularly is my wife.  Though, in another way of looking, it is a family blog.  The family was formed via email during the impeachment hearings in the 90's.  There are two Brits, a couple of Minnesotans, a lady from Kentucky, and a young man from Washington.

He also asked why I quilt.  I've developed a stock answer to that question, and I trot it out whenever asked.

In the late 80's, I had a business trip to Germany, and I Marrianna went with me.  We stayed in a small, five room hotel in Heidelberg, and we just loved it.  It was over 350 years old, still functioning, still beautiful.  I thought that there is no building in the US 350 years old.

Even then, I was thinking about what I could leave that would be around long after I am gone.  I'll never be able to build a home that will be around that long.  Nothing I write or say will ever be etched on buildings. After returning to the US, I saw a quilt show in DC that had some quilts from the 1700's.  Then I saw a class for hand quilting offered, took it, and was hooked.

I make excellent quilts, good enough that a couple of them have won prizes.  Some may very well be around in 200 years if they are handed down in the family.  I'm proud of them, and feel that I'm accomplishing something worthwhile, that will be around long after I am gone.

That's my spiel, and it usually answers the question.  But I know that there is more. I quilt because most men do not.  I quilt because that fact makes me a bit different from most men, and I like being that little bit different.  Also, I have a Best in Class and Best in Show at the 2001 North Carolina State Fair, and a third place in the 2006 State Fair.   These aren't something I would say to a guy on the golf course, or actually face to face with anyone.  They reveal a little too much ego.  But, I write them in the blog.  What about the blog loosens restraints, providing such freedom?

Tomorrow is my 69th birthday.  I didn't think I would make it this far.  For years, I had a recurring dream that I would die when I was 53.  That didn't happen, obviously, and the dream hasn't reappeared with another year as deadline.   Tonight, I'm writing about quilting and leaving a legacy of some sort.  But I know that legacy will be just so much fabric sewed together if there isn't a life worth keeping it. I know people who would probably say it hasn't been, and I regret that.  But, all I can do now is to work to make it true.

Comments

Again, Happy Birthday! Don't quit the blog. My regular morning routine is first, read what mail I may have accumulated over the night. Then I open my favorite sites and start by looking for your latest blog entry. I don't always agree with what you have said, but you do make me think, and that I appreciate. Then, when that has run its course, I read the NYTimes and whatever else strikes my fancy on that particular day. So, Thanks, Jim, and keep blogging. Mac

In my recreational reading, I encountered a very long article by a professional blogger which will run Sunday in the NY Times about blogging which you may find at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/magazine/25internet-t.html?hp

I don't know if the entire piece is worth the time, but I did think this paragraph was perhaps pertinent to your quandry.

"The will to blog is a complicated thing, somewhere between inspiration and compulsion. It can feel almost like a biological impulse. You see something, or an idea occurs to you, and you have to share it with the Internet as soon as possible. What I didn’t realize was that those ideas and that urgency — and the sense of self-importance that made me think anyone would be interested in hearing what went on in my head — could just disappear."

So, for whatever reason you do it Jim, keep up the blog.

Mac

[Felix Grant]

I second Mac's urging: you're an important part of my morning. Keep up the blog.