Several years ago I listened to a coworker tell me about a new restaurant he had discovered and how it was more proof of his remarkable taste and exceptional ability to find cool places.
I didn’t tell him my family had been eating there since I was a child and wondered if Native Americans would have made the same face I was making if someone had told them Columbus had just discovered America.
Part of me wanted to correct him but I didn’t because he wouldn’t have listened to anything I said. It wasn’t because we had an adversarial relationship but because he is one of those people who always have to know more than you do.
There was no upside to it and since it wasn’t going to be of service to anyone I chose not to waste my breath.
Try Not To Burn Any Bridges
Blame my kids for this post because we have had a couple of those conversations, ya know the ones where you share your experience and suggest they learn from it but see they don’t quite believe you.
I can’t say I blame them, I wasn’t always convinced my own parents had lives before I was born or that they had any experiences in common with me.
Because I just knew that things had changed in the decades between their time in school and mine.
Obviously I grew up and realized I was wrong about that.
****
So the other day I did my best to help my teenager understand the importance of picking and choosing our battles and why we should try not to burn bridges.
Have I mentioned that I have made a point to try to avoid pointless conflict and misunderstandings?
Did I add that if I feel like I am forced to engage in the pointless and meaningless conflicts I always want to be like Sherman and scorch the earth around me?
If it is a stupid argument and there is unwillingness to have a civil discussion, well let’s say I don’t want to be solely like Sherman.
I want to salt the earth and make it clear I wasn’t kidding when I said removing civility would make things worse.
If we can’t just talk about it, well…
Since I know someone is going to ask if this is serious or hyperbole I’ll help answer the question by asking, “what do you think?”
He’s Bringing Sexy Back To Blogging
It is probably not fair to blame my kids for all of this post because I read a few recently that helped move me to write this one too.
They were the usual advice/commentaries about how blogging is dying and or how it has been reborn because of reasons A-Z.
Posts in which people relied solely upon their own experiences to make false conclusions about blogging.
That is not particularly different from my coworker’s food discovery.
Is any of this particularly important, meaningful or significant?
Probably not, but a good writer focuses upon our craft and does their best to write on a regular basis.
So when I found some blog fodder I figured there was no reason not to take advantage of it.
Have You Read Any Of These Posts?
- Maybe We All Need More Cowbell
- You’re Blogging For The Wrong Reasons- In Pictures
- Does Facebook Add Value To Your Life?
- When Prince Attended A Passover Seder
- Paradox Is A Word Bloggers Use
I figure some of the bloggers who have been around for a while and say that blogging is dead or dying do so because we all get fewer comments than we used to.
Given all of the online destinations that offer platforms for conversation and engagement it makes sense that comments on blogs are fewer and far between than they once were.
It is part of why we have to work smarter and harder to find and keep new readers. Hell, it is harder than ever to keep the old readers around too.
If you don’t spend time marketing your blog and working hard to provide content readers want there is going to be a natural drop off.
That’s part of why some of my headlines veer off into the land of silly and or clickbait.
It is also why I try to pepper my posts with links to older material because you never know who is reading your posts and how familiar they are with your content.
Stats only provide so much information.
The Moody Blues are playing Question in the background and I am staring at the photo just above wondering if they are sailing into the sunset or the sunrise.
If I wanted a definitive answer I am sure it could be found. I am sure we could take what we see in the picture and say it is sunrise or sunset but that would defeat the purpose of this moment.
It is not supposed to be about saying it is black or it is white but about opening our eyes to multiple possibilities and thinking about what could be going on.
Life is filled with far too many moments and incidents where you can say what it is or isn’t. Sometimes I like the ambiguity, at least from a creative standpoint.
That is because when I write I want to provide enough information to create a general framework or foundation for the readers to fill in the blank with things that are meaningful to them.
I do it because the goal is for them to help me capture their attention and imagination or so the theory goes.
What do you think?
