As I make my regular rounds around different blogs lately, there seems to be a certain theme going of depression, not really having much to say and/or not updating as frequently as other bloggers did not to long ago. Not having been in this world long enough – and I don’t think many of us have - I'm still looking for and finding new blogs to read - I don’t know if this is a regular occurrence or not. I know for myself, I’ve started about 4 in the past couple of days and just seem to run out of steam about half-way through. It’s not that I don’t think they are interesting, it’s just the enthusiasm or creative juices or something seems to be lacking.
It’s not a lack of time – that I have. My sons are grown up and don’t need my attention, my husband works afternoons so I have all evening, and it’s summer rerun time so it’s not that the television has any big draw. That will probably change though in a couple of weeks – Lost season II, Without a Trace, Amazing Race, Survivor, and some interesting new shows will draw some of my attention away.
I love baseball and they have a saying in the sport – the dog days of summer. They players are tired and it’s harder to get up for a game unless you are in a pennant race. Most of the players loose a lot of their enthusiasm this time of the year.
I think that’s part of what is hitting blogland.
But I also think it’s more. Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath have affected us all I think. Even if we don’t know anyone personally affected, I think all of us have read about someone who know someone who lost everything. I haven’t been glued to the television watching the coverage. I did watch it for one evening and found myself crying at some of the stories. But I have read a lot of news stories on the internet. I’ve followed a lot of links and reading them has really brought out a lot of negative emotions. Most of all because so much could have avoided. I heard on the news just this morning about a nursing home that had evacuation plans all set, but the owners just didn’t bother calling anyone to come and take out the senior residents. I think stories such as this are going to be coming out for quite some time. I’m also very bothered by the callousness of some people – can anyone say former first lady Bush? And when I read some of the responses on political blogs and message boards – well, it’s just hard to believe the hatred and vitriol of my fellow man.
It’s hard to write a positive sounding blog when there is such chaos and suffering going on. I don’t want to come across as indifferent or insensitive. On the other hand, I don’t want to get to inured in a lot of hopeless emotions that are so easy to get caught up in.
So where is the balance? Do we blog about the good things and risk coming across as uncaring or do we continue on with the positive?
I’ve noticed there are a number of bloggers out there who should be on cloud nine, but they aren’t, they are depressed or sad or weepy. I can relate, I feel that way myself sometimes. On the other hand, I still feel very enthusiastic about this blogging business, my own and reading other peoples. So what do we do, how do we come to terms with being happy and life going on when it’s so bad for so many?
'til later
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7 comments:
It sounds like a cop-out, but I think the answer is to write what you want to share, whether that's sadness at current events or the cool new book you just read. Balance, I think, is key, or you will drive yourself batty.
For me, I've gone back to trying to blog on a regular basis, though now that school has started I have less time in the mornings, my usual blogging time.
I was on complete media overload and found myself crying at all hours of the day. I made a decision to turn the TV off (at least during the day) and stop the political blog hopping. The TV was important because my son was seeing too much and at 4 it's hard to explain why Mommy's so sad.
I also got sick of the blame game, every level of government failed, and finger pointing and sometimes misinformation or distortion of facts especially on blogs becomes overwhelming.
We all needed some semblance of normalcy and blogging about books helps me.
I mentioned at AngieW's blog that I wanted my blog to be a place where you could escape the news.
I had the TV on for the 7 days it took to get those people out of NOs. Once I knew they had evacuated and fed people I let it go. By that I mean I now watch an hour of news instead of the 8 hours I was watching.
Like you said, there are many blogs that will tell it the way they see it but even then, you have to know when you have reached your limit. I am not American so maybe it is easier for me to not get bogged down in the politics (because God knows it was coming). As for the nursing-home patients, it is just too horrible to think about. I understand that there were probably people who couldn't be moved but 40 of them? I will be watching the news on this.
As for blogging, I have not had as much time to read so it is harder to blog. Hopefully by Oct. I will have more time.
CindyS
I think it's probably a combination of Katrina and blog burnout. I find myself, with the main blog and the book blog, sometimes just with nothing to say. Or at least nothing that I think is interesting enough to be worth it. Sure I could mention that the bum on my block seems to have moved and there was a monster bug above my bed the other day, but I only really have those comments, not a whole story to go along with it.
Sometimes, its not that I dont have anything interesting to say, just that I'm too damned lazy to gather my thoughts in any kind of intelligible way. But then something will happen or I'll get a jolt of energy and I'll be back to blogging as usual.
I think it's important to blog as the mood strikes, instead of doing it because it feels like something you should be doing. A blog is supposed to be fun, not another thing on the never ending to do list.
Jay makes a good point about blogging as the mood strikes. This is very true. I'm still trying to get back to doing my blog but I know that whenever I tried to "make" myself do it, I would really start procrastinating.
There is another aspect, too, though. Personally, and another reason why I'm currently dragging my feet about getting back to blogging, I'm not even completely sure I like the format of blogs. Not the blogs themselves, but the way the comments are posted on them for the most part. If one visits very many, it can be a major pain to keep up with the individual posts one is interested in much less the ones I've commented on personally. And Bloglines doesn't help there. Any ideas?
'Cause I'm seriously considering looking at a message board format instead of a blog.
Bev: so nice to hear from you. I wondered if you were still around. I know what you mean about the issue with comments though. It would be nice if there was some other way to do it, but if there is, I'm not aware of it.
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