Blog for March 26, 2009
I am thinking about connections today, the ones between wires and the ones between people. There is a recurring theme in my day lately. The wires in my MP3 player no longer connect, so the music comes only through one channel. Sometimes. The Shop Vac on the boat also only works if the plug is in a certain position. I find myself doing an inordinate amount of “jiggling” to find the sweet spot that provides me with music and/or suction.
I have also been sucked into Facebook. “Come on!” my sister says. “You will find all kinds of people you have lost touch with”. Another friend warns me that it is also like letting down the boundaries it has taken a lifetime to build. I am curious as I picture a horde of Mongol horsemen stampeding towards me.
Which one of them is right? Well, both of them. I love the example my sister gives of a woman who was a tough bully in high school who asked to be her Facebook friend. When Annie ignored her, she got nasty. Not much change there!
Much of Facebook takes me right back to school days. There is the tension and expectation surrounding being allowed “in”. I don’t think I have directly asked, “Will you be my friend” of anyone since nursery school. Then there is the “note passing”, which actually was the high point of my educational experience right through college. I think my best friend Cindi kept all of our hilarious notes, and I do not think I have laughed as hard since. Glad I have that memory, because I remember almost nothing of Mineralogy or Petrology.
One frustrating aspect of Facebook though is that it curtails much communication. The comments have to be limited in length and that reduces experience to a sound byte. It reminds me of cocktail parties, where conversations stay shallow, quippy and short. Irony abounds, and posturing is inevitable.
So I retreat to the blog, where I can attempt to develop an idea or tell a story. Where the wires connect for more than a short burst perhaps.
I am new to Facebook, and I am still figuring out the way it works. I post a photo and a comment and it disappears forever. The same way I can only hear Rory Block in one channel right now, no matter how I jiggle the wires. The vacuum wails like a banshee. It is about to give up the ghost. If I move the plug, it stops.
I remember something I read in Ann Lamott’s writing about when life gets really frustrating in one corner, then something off in another corner is trying to be born. I hope that is true, because on this very grey and snowy day at the dreary end of March, something need to pop its bright green head over the horizon. Winter has already outstayed its welcome. Meanwhile, I keep working on connections. The ones in my hands and the ones that extend into the world beyond this snowy harbor, bordered by shrouded mountains.
