I was sitting here today, thinking about the movie Basquiat. This movie talks about how art is an ever-evolving thing with stages of growth and development that seem to be present for many artists and their different mediums. And, it made me take stock of myself re: my writing on this website. I was thinking about this so much, that I went back and re-read some of the 180+ blogs on the site to watch the evolution of things. And, it led me to realize the below:
I came up with the name “The Blind Man Society” as the site name from a bit of graffiti that was scribbled on a picnic table I used to work at over at the coffee shop. At the time, I thought that many people liked the idea of having X-ray vision when it came to life. They wanted to be able to read people, and situations so fast, that it made your head spin. While I too wanted this, especially growing up, I realized that the problem with having such sharp vision, is that once you have it, you cannot easily turn it off. So, the name for this site was related to taking the glasses off for awhile, and becoming blind to the vision, and just having fun!
This led me to think about the idea of perspective. Magic, seems to be hidden in the most unlikely places you would ever think to look out there. And, I was thinking to myself about the song Where Corn Don’t Grow by Waylon Jennings. I always thought that the title suggested the weeds in this world, and life in the big city. I also thought that maybe this is where magic or other more powerful things dwelled. Once I listened to this song a couple times I realized that the idea of perspective, and looking at things a different way to see secret things hidden in plain view all around us, is a very special ability and thing. A different pair of glasses, a different kind of vision.
I think, there are different kinds of glasses, different kinds of X-ray vision. As an example: I wrote the blog about Pet Shop Wisdom on this site to be a curveball. I was experimenting with my writing style at the time and figured – what the heck, what could go wrong with metaphors about cool animals in their cages, feasting on pellet food, rodents and feeder goldfish? But the truth is, that if you put on your Pet Shop Wisdom glasses, and have that view – the below becomes visible:
Neil the Electric Eel, is very much like a writer. Writing, is his current, and potent doses of truth the shock. The quality of the writing, is his voltage strength – and he can choose to shock the heck out of people, or write very badly and let them swim away. I personally am a fan of reverse hooks in writing. For those who don’t know, the hook is what draws people in to someone’s writing. Many writers have their hook at the beginning of a story to grab attention and cause people to read. I, on the other hand, like to use a weaker current and build things up slowly throughout the story until the last couple paragraphs – where I use my shock.
I think writing is ever evolving. People seem to like certain stages of writing in an artist’s journey or career. But, people evolve over time and what is created during growth stages is not always attractive to people. I’ve had some rather ugly blogs along the way, but the journey is what counts. I chose to leave the black eye blogs out there because they were part of my growth and blogging story. And, it occurred to me recently that the journey of this website has been very much like the growth cycle of a human.
I started really hot out of the gate. Some I talked to figured I was a flash in the pan because I was initially writing three blogs a day, and they figured I could never keep it up.
Towards the middle of blogging, I slowed down a bit – I was getting some experience with writing these things, and paced myself. That is, until Mid-life crisis struck.
Please note that the blogs I refer to as Mid-life crisis include “Golf Course Wireless….A New Member?, a blog about Hunting and Gathering and a couple others around that time period.
Today, I’m almost three years in on writing for this site, and I find that I’m not publishing as much as I used to. All the excitement of great writing makes me tired, I hired Mr. Danger to help keep it all on the path, and some days I pass on the rushes of writing to get some sleep outside in my chair amidst the singing of birds and falling leaves. Hm.
A tangential thought: I like to joke that the metaphorical doghouse where I live burned down a LONG time ago. For awhile, I was so far inside this doghouse that you could not find me with radar. What kind though? Have you ever noticed, those who have seen White Ghost Crabs on the beaches of oceans, that the way they all sit together is kind of like a multi-blip radar picture? And, when the tide comes in and the waves roll over them, they disappear into their burrows. As the water recedes again, they reappear – but in a different white blip crab pattern every time. I’ll leave this interpretive, and the readers with the most famous picture to ever grace this site:
Thank you for taking the time to read today! As always, please feel free to leave comments or likes in the box below….and have a great day!
Leave a comment