Virginia Is For Families

I have been waiting weeks for a fall day like today. It was cool. It was dry. And there was lots of sunshine. We are starting to see some color in the trees. Last night might have gotten down into the high 30’s in some areas . It was 41 degrees F when I went out this morning about 6 am. Beth is coming back this evening so I’m feeling good and enjoying life.

Thank God I am not a writer. I can’t imagine what kind of hell it must be to try and write all the time. And to have your income dependent on it. Forget about it! No wonder Hemingway and Fitzgerald drank like fish. Well, I’m sure there were other reasons too. Ernest was dressed up like a girl when he was small and his father killed himself. That probably didn’t help.

Writing is not fun. I have never heard anybody say it was fun. Do you think it’s fun? Please tell me if you do.

And then nobody said a word about the story! It’s like you get up in front of an audience and perform something. So then you finish doing your little skit or whatever and there’s not a sound. I’m not saying people should fall out of their seats because they are so excited about it. But my little sister came to the rescue awhile ago! She saved the day. She said it was “funny”. That’s all I need. I’m not trying to get a book published. Constructive criticism would be good too. I’m sure Beth will give me some of that!

I’m just trying to figure out how to write a weblog. And I’m still not ready to say I’ve decided how to do it. Things are still evolving. Little experiments are still happening. But I am actually doing you all a favor. It’s hard to believe but look at it this way. If I someday figure out something that’s novel and interesting then you all will be the first ones to see what it is! Then you can do it too!

I’m not saying that is going to happen. But you never know. I was thinking today that a really important thing that readers (including me) like to do is express an opinion on a blog. We like to do that but there are some qualifications. Religion and politics are out for most of us. They are just too hot to handle and things quickly get out of hand. In my opinion they are not that interesting either.

The other thing is that people like to express an opinion but they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. So, for instance, if I posted a photo and asked for opinions about it probably a lot of folks would not express their opinion. They would worry about hurting someone’s feelings. Or if they thought it was good they would see that two or three folks already said that and so why be redundant? People like to have unique opinions. We are all unique individuals. And our opinions reflect that fact. We don’t want to be hemmed in when we start commenting about something. And the areas I have mentioned all constrict readers in different way from stating the truth as they see it.

So what could I offer that would let folks hang loose and express their wit and wisdom without fear? That’s the big question. I don’t have the answer. But I am going to be thinking a lot about it. Why? Because I love to hear what people think. And there are millions of places where I can go this instant to get some of that. But that’s not as good. Because those are strangers. I’m talking about having a conversation with someone in the here and now about something that’s interesting.

What could it be? I thought about the weather. People like to talk about the weather. And comparing weather from around the world might be interesting. But how can you have an opinion about the weather? You might have an opinion that it’s going to get better or colder or something. But that’s your weather. Unless we live in the same area it doesn’t really matter much to me how things might be tomorrow.

Sports? I don’t know that much about sports. The Red Sox won the World Series last night! And if you go back and look you will see that I predicted before the playoffs that they would do it! But I got all the other series outcomes wrong. And I wouldn’t care at all except that I grew up loving the Red Sox in Massachusetts. So sports is not the thing. And there are plenty of people doing that already.

I am in a quandry at the moment. Photography is great. I love taking photos and posting them.  But like I said earlier you are not going to get a real bang up conversation or debate about photos unless the person who took them has been dead for twenty years.

So that has been my nice fall day. As you can see it involved more than enjoying the weather. Hopefully a good idea will come along soon.