tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post6608273582687020882..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Scintillating ConversationAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-19542797038039314892009-07-27T15:10:56.480-04:002009-07-27T15:10:56.480-04:00My blogging has led to a more open and honest conv...My blogging has led to a more open and honest conversation with my sister and brother, though it first had to go through a year or so of my sister and I barely speaking to each other.<br /><br />What eventually happened was that we were eventually able to express a complete opinion instead of being derailed by our reactions mid-thought. <br /><br />My brother was, frankly, an insufferable elitist bore for many years. Being the oldest and the only one of us with an advanced degree from an Ivy League school, he thought he should be instructing us rather than talking to us. <br /><br />(It was my beating him at Trivial Pursuit that initiated the change in our relationship, but blogging furthered it.)<br /><br />It's not all wine and roses, but it's a definite improvement over 8-10 years ago.<br /><br />As for reading blogs, I am SO addicted. Sometimes, I read and comment so much, I don't have the energy (or time) left to do my own blogging.Donna B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16771075314473811594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-33680838751340838952009-07-26T09:00:14.807-04:002009-07-26T09:00:14.807-04:00An interesting ounterpoint from Chesterton: the cl...An interesting ounterpoint from Chesterton: <a href="http://photoncourier.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_photoncourier_archive.html#109551698107587496" rel="nofollow">the clique vs the clan</a>. (Of course, he might have felt differently had he lived in a small village rather than London)David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-76145803303668045662009-07-25T20:47:12.873-04:002009-07-25T20:47:12.873-04:00A friend of mine who has a blog with a huge reader...A friend of mine who has a blog with a huge readership, lots of comments, etc. has said to me that blogs are for people who might have been ham radio operators in another time and place. One may be lonely or isolated, or doing work with people who don't have any of the same interests, but in one's free time one might reach and talk to someone one may never see. And it is always a thrill getting to know someone else's thoughts and ideas, chuckling as one wonders "I wonder how X will describe THIS latest scandal, or Y will react to this awesome book or how Z will react to the family reunion she has warned us is looming over her...<br /><br />What keeps me reading and posting and commenting, is a similar craving. I love it when I read somebody's post about a political or social event and realize that we feel the same. But it is more interesting when one find's one's own prejudices or ignorance diminished by another person's superior insight into a problem, or more level headed response to some inflammatory events. Much as when studying the Bible in small groups, one can learn so much more by debating back and forth. <br /><br />I think others here have said it also, but I find often that I discover my real opinion on an issue after reading something another blogger has written, which leads one to post in response, etc. <br /><br />Much conversation in daily life by middle age has become something like trench warfare. One digs in, aware of the dangers of exposing oneself. For example, most of us cannot be wholly candid about politics, religion, or our views on sexual or moral issues in public. Even if utterly conventional, our views will doubtless offend or (perhaps unintentionally) anger or hurt another. So, mostly, we burrow down with those we clearly know to be on our side, periodically lobbing a shell over at the enemy. Sometimes getting our courage up or following orders and charging out into No Man's Land, but usually at great cost. QUite often, the trenches we cower in become foul, flooded, and/or infested with rats and fleas, and we get claustrophobice....<br /><br />BLogging, by contrast, is one of the few ways that one can struggle to both understand the truth and tell it left to us. We can opine to our families (mine are heartily sick of my views!), but it's wonderful when we can learn from another's attempt to be honest about their confusion, theorizing, and real reactions to a situation. <br /><br />Our family spends many hours a day talking (my son's disability kept us walled up together for days at a time when he was younger and more disturbed), and we do discuss history, politics, literature, psychology, etc. But in a family, the lines often harden. <br /><br />Blogging would have been a godsend to me when the kid was very young and we were almost completely isolated socially, despite living in a crowded suburb. <br /><br />It will certainly be a lifeline if we move to the country (if I get laid off in all the economic upheavals). <br /><br />I consider myself blessed that my relatives are literate and articulate and that we do have good discussions, but there is really nowhere in my community (except in small group at church) that I ever get to discuss the things that matter to me, or that I am most puzzled by, except blogging.Retrieverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09036341287285545932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-10802137858677245262009-07-25T10:16:21.359-04:002009-07-25T10:16:21.359-04:00You express your inarticulateness well.You express your inarticulateness well.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-60459845388301388832009-07-25T10:09:41.975-04:002009-07-25T10:09:41.975-04:00Another addict here. Although I have cut-back on ...Another addict here. Although I have cut-back on the blog reading aspect of late. I like to follow all of these conversations, but I am mostly inarticulate, thinking more in pictures and non-verbal symbols than in words. I can never hold my own in a conversation, so I don't engage in many. I love reading yours (and many others') though!jlbusseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09393569258457198446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-5761285019412643982009-07-25T10:06:33.230-04:002009-07-25T10:06:33.230-04:00My husband has a blog that has been a great outlet...My husband has a blog that has been a great outlet for his analytical and creative mind. With most of his male friends, the phone conversations are short - as in what time they will meet to play golf - but there is a man he met through his blog who calls him. They talk for hours on all types of subjects and it is a joy to watch him actually be able to have scintillating conversations with someone he never would have met without the internet. You can check out my husband's blog at www.hallofrecord.blogspot.com.Kathy Hallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07885368789081914581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-81011614808121584742009-07-25T09:38:44.776-04:002009-07-25T09:38:44.776-04:00ha...it was supposed to say I can quit anytime I w...ha...it was supposed to say I <i>can</i> quit anytime I want....even my subconcious knew I couldn't truthfully type that!terrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-43840362396320765502009-07-25T09:37:26.070-04:002009-07-25T09:37:26.070-04:00Blogging/reading blogs is addictive?
I don't ...Blogging/reading blogs is addictive?<br /><br />I don't have a problem<br /><br />I can't quit any time I want...really!<br /><br />It is true that I look to blogs to fill in the missing art of conversation and ideas around me. In truth, my "real" is quite boring and conventional. There isn't much scintillating conversation going on here...though DH and I do every so often have long, deep conversations which are stimulating an interesting.....but sparse in quantity simply because of the busyness of life.<br /><br />Blogs are a way of kicking around ideas with people we wouldn't normally encounter, hearing perspectives that might never appear on our radar.<br /><br />It is enjoyable, but not without its downside.<br /><br />Blogging might change, but I don't think it will disappear altogether. It might become less popular and live only among a certain population of committed conversants.terrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-59029937212601616812009-07-25T03:42:37.519-04:002009-07-25T03:42:37.519-04:00I think it is somewhat unusual that I -- the mothe...I think it is somewhat unusual that I -- the mother-in-law have such conversations as you are blogospherically having.<br /><br />"So what are you reading?" is the conversational opener for two of my three sons-in-law. We have a less than formal arrangement of sending books to each other.<br /><br />To best explain the relationship I have with one son-in-law is my daughter's complaint after her first date with him at Barnes and Noble... where I had spent 45 minutes discussing various political and philosophical ideas... she looked at me at said, "he's mine."<br /><br />I was quite thrilled when they married because that made him "mine" too for discussion.<br /><br />I don't mean to suggest that my other sons-in-law aren't interesting, but I'm lucky enough to have one that hits it on every cylinder.<br /><br />Yeah, I know I'm so lucky it hurts.Donna B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16771075314473811594noreply@blogger.com