Aghast at the Mysteries of Blogging

One of the most interesting dimensions of blogging, dear audience, is that * you * may very well not exist.

I may devote earnest efforts to conjure you (emails, subtle references to blogcontentn in F2F conversation)...

But – in the end – you may or may not exist (/read). Who knows?

COMBINE this mystery of blogging with another delightful one –

The relative invisibility of existing bloggers. Try to find this blog with a search engine. I dare you. I don’t think you can do it. Well actually as long as you use the EXACT NAME of the blog -- you can do it, but you only know the name because you've been here. Just try to find the blog without that specialized knowledge...pretty hard, eh?

* but * even once you “find” “me” – JUST by reading you * still * can’t “reach me.”

Try to find (I dare you) a way to respond to me on this page.

Hunh? Can’t do it! Its crazy!

If I actually PAID blogspot for this space – there would be a space for comments – but I’m cheap, and (frankly) a little afraid of my ability to stay “true” to blogging…so for now i'm a freeloader...

So the truth is that not only are many blogs unfindable / invisible, but they are also unrespondable – rendering them doubly invisible.

WHICH BRINGS ME – to my point....

I found my friend Joel’s blog a couple of weeks ago, and have enjoyed watching him trek through Europe…hearing his refreshing, hilarious, passionate voice again….BUT…

Even though I’ve found him. I can’t * reach * him. He doesn’t know that I’m listening. That I exist (in cyberspace at least)

So my idea was -- I'll put it up as a contest on my blog -- first person to send me Joel's email address wins. Since everyone's connected by six degrees of separation anyway -- it shouldn't be too hard.

BUT as if this were a fox-network-blog – there's a twist. Here’s the latest entry from “cushman”:

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Quite possibly the most amazing two days I've had. Amazing in the sense of me going completely homeless core. Jenkins and I went homeless all night in Milan waiting to catch our flight. Today has consisted of me in downtown Brussels constantly looking for a bed down in city parks; also trying to conserve my last euro coins; At one point I actually thought about going begging; Tonight I'm stranded by Marcus and am hoping to bed down in the Brussels airport; possibly the most hard core I've gone in awhile; Despite me being almost out of euros; I'm digging on this experience.
- posted by Joel @ 12:00 PM

Making up hipster language like "homeless core" is just like Joel! And for him (unlike if I tried to do it), it works!

But despite his ability to use language well, apparently, he's disappearing into poverty in Europe somewhere. Possibly Brussels. Running out of Euros to eat (but still blogging -- that's heroism -- a sense of the tragic frame! if you must die in poverty, make sure you do it with an audience (see _Rent_)).

Who knows what’s happened to Joel since? My little contest * could * be a very short - lived reality – show – style - blog - quest.

If we don’t find him soon – we may very well -- in hyperreal time – See Cushman Starve.

Of course, if I were a normal guy and this were a normal blog the whole thing would have said, “Hey! Anybody know my friend Joel Larson from BG? Do you read his cushman blog? Do you have his email address?” But that’d be way too easy.

Besides this way – maybe I'll come up with prizes...

Happy International Forgiveness Day! Be sure to keep forgiving everybody that you need to…it’s the hardest work we can do as humans. As my Newcastle Ale cap read the other day: “life’s too short to be bitter.” (in terms of beer, I disagree, but in terms of forgiveness – Amen!)

Peace & Forgiveness ~