Sometimes we struggle to find our place in this world. We search for our identities, seeking to define ourselves or asking others to define us. We are comfortable when things, people and ourselves come with tidy labels."What do you do?" has become a deeper question than "How do you do?"
I have often been a participant in this angst of our age, searching for this elusive label, the one I expect to both define and fulfill me, and announcing I've found it seconds before a different possible label occurs to me.
Leonardo da Vinci is attributed with this quote:
Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.An old proverb tells us hindsight is 20/20. Perhaps we can gain perspective on "who" and "what" we are by stepping back and noticing who and where we've been in our lives.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
Don’t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.I've often struggled to find a label for my blogging, seeking to find my "place" on the web. I've tried several identities but often felt like someone fitting a square peg in a round hole. But a little hindsight tells me, perhaps it is enough for my online identity to simply be "someone who happens to blog." After all, that is what I've inadvertently been doing all the time I've been searching for an online identity. The simplest definition of a blog is that it's a log which happens to be on the web. My various posts under the various hats I've tried to wear create the cumulative effect of providing a web log, documenting the process.
Am I comfortable with standing on a soapbox and proclaiming this documentation process as blogging's highest call? I think so.
Instructional blogs abound, bloggers attempting to position themselves as authorities on a variety of subjects, but few are willing to step out from behind that authoritative voice.
In one of my favorite books, The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It, Michael Gerber points out that most of us really don't know what we're doing. We're all flying by the seat of our pants and hoping nobody else figures that out.
So I'm telling you right now, I'm flying by the seat of my pants. Are you?
That's one reason I'm starting this new blog. Oh I know, I've started others before. I can't promise this one won't be a flash in the pan like all the others but I do think I'm starting this one a little more informed than I have been in the past.
Sorry if you're confused, but this is a new blog; I've simply imported the posts I've written in other places.
I find that blogging comes naturally to me. I've always logged my experiences in one way or another. I used to think I was meant to be a teacher, but really it's always been more about sharing than teaching. I'm not very interested in breaking things down into a pedagogical sequence, but I do like to share things I've learned or things I'm excited about.
I guess that's why I write, why I've started painting, and why I'm interested in so many creative means of expression. And I guess that's why I'm a blogger.
I think that label suits me, at least for today.
Image: Gail S
7 comments:
Were you talking to me? It sure felt like it. And I have to say yes, I’m flying by the seat of my pants. This is the way I’ve lived my whole life, and I like it. My interests are eclectic. I’m always trying something new. I’m never bored.
Keep us posted on your adventures in painting. I’ve been thinking about getting back to watercolor as a way to focus and relax (then post photos of my terrible artwork on my blog as an example of a writer who doesn’t know who she is).
Don’t try to hard to pigeonhole yourself, Terry. You might find your “place” begins to look way too much like a rut.
@Patricia: If I did happen to be talking to you, every time we point our finger at someone else we have three pointing back at ourselves. But of course, I wasn’t.
As far as getting pigeonholed I guess that’s something I’m learning too, the fact that I don’t need such things. It’s interesting to see that’s a recurring theme in the lives of so many.
I look forward to seeing your watercolors. As far as posting them in all their terrible glory, that’s exactly what I intend to do with my own!
I too have tried to figure out where I fit in the blog world, and some days apart from simply knowing that I want to be a part of it, I can’t figure it out. But this manifesto is admirable. And as far labels go, you could ask for much worse.
Also, I adore your cat photo.
Good for you Terry! This is a posting I think many writers and bloggers (whatever we choose to call ourselves at the moment) will relate to, admiring you as I do for this feeling of being comfortable that you describe here so well. It’s something I have come to call “spirit-spilling” thinking of spirit as our Aloha spirit which has this genuine, and highly useful wanting within it, hoping it will connect with others. That is also something a blog does so beautifully, becoming a vessel for the connecting, and when you change it up we probably pay more attention since we humans tend to like shiny new things!
Love the url too… it is just upon 7:30am as I write this in Hawai‛i and I am having my morning Kona coffee with you!
@Jen B: I guess something I’ve just figured out is you find your place in blogging (and in the world) by just being a part of it.
And many thanks to Gail S for posting her cat photo on Flickr under a Creative Commons license which allowed me to use it!
@Rosa: I like your term “spirit-spilling.” It really describes that feeling I have inside of just wanting to connect . . . a feeling I think we all share on at least some level. Do you think it’s true that we all want to share, but maybe just don’t always express that feeling in a productive way?
Thanks for putting a positive spin on changing things up; I often feel guilty (or even unstable!) because I change things so often. But then you’re right, we do like shiny new things.
I think the url describes what I want to do with blogging. I also think it can be used to describe a type of blogger, the way “Problogger” does. Perhaps some day I’ll print t-shirts and we can all call ourselves Coffeebloggers!
Thanks for sharing your morning coffee with me [clinks our coffee mugs together].
@Rosa: Rayona Sharpnack’s quote reminds me of how Aspen trees sometimes grow. Above ground they can appear to be a grove of individual trees, but beneath the ground they are seen to be stems from a shared root system. In Utah, one Aspen “tree” covers 106 acres.
On some plane, human beings seem connected in a similarly invisible way.
Terry, you asked, “Do you think it’s true that we all want to share, but maybe just don’t always express that feeling in a productive way?” and yes, I do think that is true. Rayona Sharpnack has a line which stuck with me when I read her book Trade Up! Five Steps for Redesigning Your Leadership and Life from the Inside Out (book review on JJL) which says something like, “life is not a solo proposition; we human beings are not meant to live alone” and I do think that is true in that basic-need/Maslow’s pyramid kind of way: We thrive on some kind of connection (wanting to share our spirit) though we can be pretty choosy about it. I do think that bloggers are more open and generous with their choosing, and that blogging seems to be “look at me!” broadcasting at first, but it really is quite an act of generosity. It is an act of bravery too, putting yourself out there for strangers to dissect and comment on your feelings!
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