Primary hypertension, blogging, and Alexis Zaharis
Today, I needled a woman who came in with a chief complaint of hypertension and anxiety. We got down the back shu points, and she was feeling pretty good sensation. Then we hit her liver point, and she automatically started weeping. It was like a switch went on, and she had a nice little emotional release. That was hot.
So, anyway, last night, I got to thinking about blogs, and what it means to have one. I was inspired to chew on that by my old friend Alexis Zaharis. We'll get to her later. Anyway, she made a comment that got me to think about the relatively egocentric nature of the blogosphere, and what it really means.
First I got to thinking about all the different types of blogs that are out there. The best of them, in my opinion, are informative blogs; people who have some trade, hobby, or experience that they offer to the world through the informal language of a blog entry. This is cool, and a fascinating form of primary research. Say I wanted to know what it was like to be a soldier in Iraq right now. Instantly, I could have a list of literally hundreds of individual's perspectives from a direct source. Say I want to write a novel...boom, there are hundreds of novelists and literary agents that post everything they know about the industry.
Now, unfortunately, I don't really have anything like that to offer. So that leads us to the second type of blog; that is, the platform blog. Thousands of individuals, yours truly included, have decided that their thoughts, feelings, opinions, etc., are somehow worthy of being shared. The real question, then, becomes this: Is a blog public or private?
Obviously it is public. It is a public forum that any of you (all six of you, in my case) can access at any time you like. In that way, there is no privacy here. But that said, what stops me from sharing with all of you that, say, I don't know, I jerked off at around six thirty am this morning? That's some private info there; I certainly wouldn't tell you to your face. But here, I feel perfectly comfortably saying it.
Here's the thing: I think that blogs are like messages in a bottle. Captains at sea, when faced with inevitable shipwreck, stranded survivors on desolate islands, people floating in open waters with nothing more than a lifeboat separating them from sharks... all these folks are people who might write a message in a bottle. Their lives, their thoughts, their words... they wanted to create some kind of public record an open letter to whoever happened to find it floating out there. They didn't care who read it, goddamnit, they just cared that they SAID it, you see? And don't we all feel the ocean closing in around us sometimes? Don't we all want some record, some carving in a tree that says we were here? Even if it is a paltry faux-journal that is hopelessly engineered to look good for friends (i.e. I didn't really masturbate this morning. See, I LIED.) So. That's it. I'm stranded out in the middle of the ocean, just like you, and this is a little message in a bottle, that maybe someone will find.
Someone like Alexis Zaharis. I met Alexis almost 25 years ago, theoretically on a playground at Montessori, if our parents are to be believed. I do remember, however, a time that we went to the mall. We saw the movie "Clueless," and then we went wandering around. At some point, we thought it would be increadibly cool to buy pogs of various sorts. About three years later, Alexis and I were keeping a correspondence going while she attended Miss Porters and I was at New Hampton. She mailed me a brief letter with a cool stuff care package in it, including various knick knacks, and of course, the pogs we had bought at the mall, years earlier. She signed the note "Love, and other indoor sports, Alexis." I laughed then, and I laugh now thinking about it, and I still have the pogs, another ten years later. Even if I do suck on the phone.
So, that's the kind of friend Alexis is, and that's the kind of friend I am. Anyone else who would like their own, personalized message in a bottle can contact me by email much more easily than by phone.
So, anyway, last night, I got to thinking about blogs, and what it means to have one. I was inspired to chew on that by my old friend Alexis Zaharis. We'll get to her later. Anyway, she made a comment that got me to think about the relatively egocentric nature of the blogosphere, and what it really means.
First I got to thinking about all the different types of blogs that are out there. The best of them, in my opinion, are informative blogs; people who have some trade, hobby, or experience that they offer to the world through the informal language of a blog entry. This is cool, and a fascinating form of primary research. Say I wanted to know what it was like to be a soldier in Iraq right now. Instantly, I could have a list of literally hundreds of individual's perspectives from a direct source. Say I want to write a novel...boom, there are hundreds of novelists and literary agents that post everything they know about the industry.
Now, unfortunately, I don't really have anything like that to offer. So that leads us to the second type of blog; that is, the platform blog. Thousands of individuals, yours truly included, have decided that their thoughts, feelings, opinions, etc., are somehow worthy of being shared. The real question, then, becomes this: Is a blog public or private?
Obviously it is public. It is a public forum that any of you (all six of you, in my case) can access at any time you like. In that way, there is no privacy here. But that said, what stops me from sharing with all of you that, say, I don't know, I jerked off at around six thirty am this morning? That's some private info there; I certainly wouldn't tell you to your face. But here, I feel perfectly comfortably saying it.
Here's the thing: I think that blogs are like messages in a bottle. Captains at sea, when faced with inevitable shipwreck, stranded survivors on desolate islands, people floating in open waters with nothing more than a lifeboat separating them from sharks... all these folks are people who might write a message in a bottle. Their lives, their thoughts, their words... they wanted to create some kind of public record an open letter to whoever happened to find it floating out there. They didn't care who read it, goddamnit, they just cared that they SAID it, you see? And don't we all feel the ocean closing in around us sometimes? Don't we all want some record, some carving in a tree that says we were here? Even if it is a paltry faux-journal that is hopelessly engineered to look good for friends (i.e. I didn't really masturbate this morning. See, I LIED.) So. That's it. I'm stranded out in the middle of the ocean, just like you, and this is a little message in a bottle, that maybe someone will find.
Someone like Alexis Zaharis. I met Alexis almost 25 years ago, theoretically on a playground at Montessori, if our parents are to be believed. I do remember, however, a time that we went to the mall. We saw the movie "Clueless," and then we went wandering around. At some point, we thought it would be increadibly cool to buy pogs of various sorts. About three years later, Alexis and I were keeping a correspondence going while she attended Miss Porters and I was at New Hampton. She mailed me a brief letter with a cool stuff care package in it, including various knick knacks, and of course, the pogs we had bought at the mall, years earlier. She signed the note "Love, and other indoor sports, Alexis." I laughed then, and I laugh now thinking about it, and I still have the pogs, another ten years later. Even if I do suck on the phone.
So, that's the kind of friend Alexis is, and that's the kind of friend I am. Anyone else who would like their own, personalized message in a bottle can contact me by email much more easily than by phone.
posted by Dr. Sun Si Miao at 3:26 PM
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