I've been hemming and hawing about how best to post this, over the last ten days or so, but let's just say first: it is cold.
I am back in Portland, a bit early, and man! The water from the tap is freezing and when you sit on the toilet seat, it's downright chilly! There's all this carpet in people's houses, stores, the mall, and everyone - or 99% of people - obey traffic signals!! It's insanity!
:)
So a combination of personal reasons and 2009 funding for the organization I work for (yes, I still work for them, just from Oregon again) mean that it makes more sense for me to be here than there. Partially, The Big Grant (that some of you already know about) is still up in the air - three months late and counting - and so the global economic crisis hits home for me; primarily, coming home now means I may be able to go on a film shoot in Belize later this year. And the other part is for personal reasons, learning that expanding your heart and your love isn't easy work and I'm more present to it when I'm... uh... present.
So Oregon is welcoming me back, with a little sunshine and lots of blooming cherry trees, dogwoods, daffodils, crocuses and the first lilacs, too. I have all kinds of work to do, and I'm happy to be home, and the post title here is a question for you, my one or five or twenty-five readers.
I've enjoyed blogging much more than I thought. It's a whole new genre... neither travel writing nor journaling, neither entirely public nor entirely private. It's confessional but it is also entertainment and a type of new dialogue. Should I continue? Now that I am not jet setting around the globe, at least not for a while, what kind of focus should, or can, A Pig of Success take? Funny, emotional, slice of daily life, news-item reactions/essays, political commentary... there are twenty blogs for every possible angle. (See The Dog Blog or F@$% You Penguin for surprising and favorite examples.) So as I wonder this week, let me know what you think... do I stick the blog on hiatus until my next adventure, or do I walk the tightrope of being self-indulgent and bloggery while amusing and engaging a public audience?
Suggestions heartily welcome, and ideas most certainly considered.
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I vote for sticking with it. I enjoy your writing and your perspective, and I think you can find insight in both the unfamiliarity of a foreign country and familiarity of the lunch cart down the street. I would look forward to musings on both.
ReplyDeleteAll personal blogging is a bit self-indulgent and narcissistic. I've come to terms with that. The very act of writing your thoughts and experiences and then putting them out in public for everyone to read assumes that you think your thoughts and experiences are something worth reading. And, it must be said, some people's blogs aren't worth reading. Yours--enjoyable and worthwhile. I'd suggest that you just keep writing about whatever is of interest to you on any particular day, and if you find yourself tending to return to a certain style or topic, then hey--you've found your focus!
ReplyDeleteHere here!
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ReplyDeleteI also vote to keep the blog going! Molly
ReplyDeleteI vote "Blog Away!" You may now add this to your list of many talents. Welcome Home! Jane
ReplyDeleteI say... "Do it. Stick it where the sun don't shine... oh wait. That's bad. Okay - do it if it makes you feel good!!! Ok. But you can't take your laptop in your bubble bath. Soooooo... I'm gonna tell you to figure it out over a good martini and a book. There! Very Hemingway of me. But you're the writer and I'm making things up, so do whatevah the H-E-double hockey sticks ya want to, Emmy." That's what I say. Oh! And I'll also tell ya that it's uber fun for me to see you write outside of work stuff, so my personal vote is to keep it up. ;-) HUGS!!!!
ReplyDeleteI say stick with it, girl! 'Tis the only way I know your still alive! :P
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, though, since blogging is something you seem to love it would be a shame to only do it when something "monumental" happens. Although, I'm pretty sure you've got plenty of monumental moments in the near and distant future ahead of you. =)