This is initial contact. If you are reading this, you have entered the space of my blog. And by entering, you are connected to me . . . somehow. How real is this link? We are together and yet unavoidably separate at the same time. By definition, any communication is the result of a relationship between a sender and a receiver, a speaker and a listener. Consequently, you and I are connected. I find this exciting.
I also find myself overanalyzing this thing (for lack of a better term; by "thing" I am referring to this blog, you, I, and the innumerable connections whose existence I only briefly touched upon in the previous paragraph) to its inevitable demise, its implosion. To reference Milan Kundera, perhaps life is the continual process of balancing lightness and weight. If I place too much weight on our interaction, it will collapse. Simultaneously, not enough weight and it will blow away.
I see a correlation between this lightness/weight duality (symbiosis?) and my recent relocation to Seattle. What, precisely, am I doing here? Do I endow my present situation with too much significance, or not enough? Is this life the one I was made for, or is it simply a simulacral experiment, a surreal dream I have thrown myself into that will soon spit me back out into the "real" world with an equal vehemence?
For that matter, who am I? Relocating geographically highlights the processes of identity in painful colors. I see that who I think I am is very much a result of numerous forces, communities, economic transactions, theoretical abstractions that, for whatever reason, happen to captivate my attention at a particular time. This is to say, I am seeing clearly that we are always in the constant process of negotiating and recreating who we are. This, I sincerely believe, is the famed human condition.
So it is to this process of identification, the continual pursuit of orientation and reorientation, the in-between that, consciously or unconsciously, we all occupy, it is, essentially, to the very self, that I dedicated this blog. My hope is that as I relate to you (singular and plural) my formation as a human being, and you confront me with your own formation, we can grow together; we can commune with each other. We can find the way together. I hope that this is a place where we can live.
Hey buddy. I know I will someday join you in this pursuit of online community blogging. Until then, congrats on the new blog.
Posted by: ARoss at September 13, 2004 02:23 PMWow, that was quick! And cool! Blogging is cool!
I miss you Andy! Thanks for posting a comment. You are my first commenter and will forever be remembered as such.
Nudge, good to hear from you. I was actually talking about you the other night. I was telling one of several animal stories related to my time on Catacombs, and I was marveling at your ability to carve up a chicken like a butcher.
Posted by: David Hancock at September 13, 2004 05:41 PMhey nudge. my brother lives in the seattle area some place, I'll ask him where he goes to church. You may not have know him, his name was Standy, or steve, depending who you talk to and their respective year of graduation.
Posted by: Timmy at September 14, 2004 01:00 PMAlas, my chicken carving skills have been out of practice as late. But it's nice to know I have a special place in your heart, Dave. Where are you living now?
I remember your brother, Timmy, I just didn't know him very well. But I'd like to remeet him if he's in the area. Thanks
Posted by: paul at September 14, 2004 02:16 PMI'll have to track down his information, I have it around here somewhere, if you recall the floor of our old room, that's about the shape of my office right now.
Posted by: Timmy at September 28, 2004 02:36 PM