Friday, August 2, 2013

The first rainy day blog post

In some recent storms that assailed my small part of the world and toppled mighty trees I found myself cut off, at least at home, from the internet for about a week. Since the internet is of questionable benefit I am not sure I suffered greatly, but I was worried sick for my blog. I think my blog is a little like a cat, happy and healthy with regular attention and feeding. Toni Morrison said  “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” I have applied this to blogs. There was a blog I wanted to read but I couldn't find anyone writing it, so I started writing this. It was like getting a cat! I feed it and play with it. It is occasionally shy of strangers and sometimes hides, but is not above demanding attention from random people or just clawing someone inattentive for fun. But even though I am writing this blog I still would like to read blogs at least sort of like it. I like cats. So sometimes I wander out into the internet, try and find my way off the main roads and into back internet alleys of quirkiness and slightly uninternetiness (almost positive that's a word! Sounds better out loud than one would think) all to find a like-minded blog. I find the usual big monoliths (despite trying to stay off the big roads) with all their product or fill in the blank content. I find the motivated and confident professionals, the helpful practicals, and the socially connected internet slicksters. But you know what I find most of all? Do you know how I can tell if I am really deep in the back alleys? There are dead cats. I find lots and lots of dead cats. "Oh, this blog looks interesting, just maybe..." I say. But it's last post was three years ago. Over here this one has a good title, but whoever made it posted once and was gone forever. They brought home the cute kitten, fed it, played with it, moved to New Brunswick and left the cat. The cat died, abandoned. Except, it's a metaphorical cat, so it wasn't murdered really, and it didn't decompose. It pristinely mummified, a perfect frozen image of itself exactly as it last was in life.

This works as a cautionary tale to me. No, not of getting lost in one's own analogies. Though, hmm... No, no, not of that, but of what I secretly suspect may be the fate of my blog one day, the fate of all blogs. One day the cat must die. And its corpse must sit up looking fresh and ready to be petted forever. Ew. So I think that sometimes all one can do when one begins dwelling darkly on inevitable ends is to recommit to battle against that end, find new weapons, and buy more cat food.

So, what I am doing is writing some non time sensitive blog posts for rainy days. Is my internet down? Did the global apocalypse happen? Am I sick, overcome with enuii, on remote vacation? Am I lost in the woods? Still sleeping, called away on an emergency? Could be any of these. But I'm not running reruns or letting my cat go hungry. I have saved these special blog posts, let's call them rainy day blog posts, to feed the cat while I am away. Everything is fine, cat is here, and there is exciting new content everyday.

Unless of course the posting date on this is like a month or a year or a decade old, and there's nothing after. Then, oh, it's too horrible to contemplate!

2 comments:

  1. Have you considered asking a trusted fellow clerk to feed your cat while your away?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ooops. I have taken five years to respond to this! Mea culp. But better late than never.

      You probably know the answer to this by now: This cat would rather starve than be fed by another hand.

      Delete

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