So
I've been avoiding writing here, again. Over two weeks without a word.
Why? I certainly can't claim I've been doing this too long and that
I have burnout, as a lot of more experienced journalers have done recently.
Each day
brings some sort of marginally interesting thing which I could focus
on. Last week alone, I had day after day of annoyances and/or bad luck:
visiting relatives, dental hell, muffler pipe broke, car starter quit
stranding us far away from home....etc., etc.
Thursday,
I sat and priced about 40 boxes of books in anticipation of selling
them at Printer's Row Book fair which is coming up soon in downtown
Chicago. Our new venture into book selling, might be something worth
writing about. Not to mention the 4,000 books my husband bought at an
auction which we had to deal with moving.
Last weekend
we went to some good garage sales, and at one of them we bought a pot
full of pennies. They asked $8.00 for it and when we had them counted
they came to $42.25...not a bad profit and a bonus--since we didn't
even have to put it up on E-bay and sell it first--no waiting for our
money!
On almost
each and every day there really is something, no matter how banal, that
seems like it could be forged be into a decent entry.
Even the
unbelievably excellent and tasty variation on my Mom's Meatloaf
recipe which I made last week could have been transformed into a food
entry.
Journals
primarily for ruminations about everyday life or life in general, are
acceptable, and I should simply not concern myself with whether or not
any of those topics would interest you. It is for me, right? Why is
it so hard for me?
There
is something which I do find disconcerting about feeling that I am writing
into a void. It's something which I am am not used to doing, probably
because my time on line --for five or more years--has mostly been spent
on various types of interactive sites or bulletin boards, and I am used
to the idea that writing something brings a response. That's one reason
I linked to the Greenspun forums, so that people could respond if they
felt like doing so. Except for the few friends I tell, who may happen
to pass through, or my family who wants to see what's up, the traffic
here is pretty minimal still. So I don't get a lot of conversation.
Even if I try another messaging system, I don't expect that to change
much initially.
Add to
that my self-imposed criteria that I must write something important
each and every day, and you've got a complete formula for not writing
at all.
Of course
we all know that ordinary life just isn't always all that interesting.
The pithy observations and the insights come from the sum total of our
experiences...blah,blah,blah.... right?
Frankly,
though, one of the things I do enjoy about the journal format is reading
about everyone's ordinary daily lives. It's true that the skill with
which someone writes impacts whether or not I come back. And the intermittent
reinforcement of finding the well written, really excellent essay, observation,
or even a great rant with which I can identify will almost always hook
me into being a daily reader. Still, just the skillful recitation of
daily events has something which keeps me interested. Perhaps it's simply
my nodding in recognition of the commonality of the human experience.
Hmmm..suddenly
I feel I'm on my way to some awful Gumpian analogy akin to— "life
is just a box of chocolates”—(am I one of the few who hated that
movie?) So, before I dive headlong into the meatloaf bowl..I'm
gonna quit right here.