There are many purposes and kinds of blogs out there in cyberliterature. Some blog to communicate with youthful friends and family. Some vent. Some create or reinvent themselves and experiment with the new personality in a blog. Tentatively there are bloggers who reach out to see who is listening, or reach out to talk to strangers. Blogs occasionally become a news source, or political soap box. Others see blogging as their portal to self publishing.
I've used blogs for all these purposes. When the shooting occured at that university in Virginia, I used myspace to find students and send my well wishes. I keep track of my sons through myspace and facebook. I Google blogs when news events of interest occur to read what first hand witnesses have to say. I've vented, I've resolved, I've pontificated and I've admitted my mistakes to a cyber public.
I am going to use this blog for exploration this year. It will be my novel of 2009.
I've always wanted to write a book. I often dance around writing, but rarely actually step into the center. In fact, this lack of accomplishment has weighed on my mind recently. I googled names of family recently and discovered two of my sisters, a son and my daughter can all be found easily on the first page of results (a couple as the first listing). I cannot be found anywhere, even though I have a webpage and blogs. There are so many things I would like to do, but little (I feel) that I have actually accomplished. Recently in a writer's magazine (buying magazines, but not actually writing is part of the dance) there were a series of articles meant to inspire. One author wisely noted that there are many people who find some success in writing simply from being persistant. Others, who may be much more talented, do not succeed because of lack of personal discipline. Accomplishing something like writing requires effort, work, tenacity.
Bingo - that's me. Talented but lazy. Of course I have wonderful excuses. I'm a very busy person with work, raising a family, keeping house, church involvement, reading, and researching family history. I have health issues that keep me from running full steam. I have a limited budget, so I have to be careful not to overspend. And the classic, there are so many things I want to do, I can't decide which to do first. So I do nothing.
I have to be careful not to completely berate myself. I make "to do lists" and do get a couple things crossed off each year. But I have noticed there are some things that keep showing up on the list undone each season. But it is not my intention here to turn this into a whining sesson.
I went shopping with my daughter today and found a couple books that intrigued me (easy to do, I'm a readaholic). Interestingly, they are both by the same author, Keri Smith. The first title to catch my attention was, How to be an Explorer or the World. I am a first grade teacher, so I am always looking for ways to encourage imagination and thinking in young minds. The other book Wreck This Journal also intrigued me. Both books challenge you to think and do creatively (even a little destructively). As I mulled over the purposes of the books, an idea came to mind. I am going to "work" through these books together this year to stimulate my own creative juices.
There is some physics principal that has to do with motion and stillness of objects. Something moving continues moving or something still will remain still until an outside force acts upon it. I believe this is inertia. I can imagine that creativity works the same way. Have you ever noticed creative people always seem to have ideas, whereas those of us who are bumps on a log tend to just sit there.
My exploration this year is to get me up and hopping (oh great, a frog metaphor). I've purchased another blank journal to actually wreck (sorry, Keri - can't bring myself to destory a book I bought to read -- but you did say instructions are open to interrpretation, page negative 2 in my book). I will also be working through the more postive exploring the world activities. In addition to actually doing the simple activities, I will be recording my results, observations, opinions, ideas and whatever comes from it - here. This will be my fieldwork journal. Please feel free to join me.
It is my hope that the discipline of daily (or near daily) recording of my explorations and experiments will lead to other accomplishments too. Creative inertia in action. I'll try to share some of those results too.
I did flip through the explore the world book and noted there seems to be some kind of museum showing experience toward the end. So we'll see what happens. Next December I may extend an open invitation to any and all to come view my results.
Tomorrow is January 1, 2009. Let the discovery begin!
