And I'm becoming the worst offender myself! It's so much easier to click into facebook and slam up a few pictures, tag someone, dash off a couple of notes. Nothing to do but click, post, done, coffee.
It's easy. It's also lazy ... or at the very least one could argue that doing facebook adheres to the Way of Tao, the Watercourse. Which is to say, you take the easiest course (path of least resistance) around or through an obstacle course (life), like a stream of water --
The philosophy is very neat and tidy; but the blog that was such a pleasure a few months ago is barely ticking over now! One is almost inclined to bark, "Shaddap, Chuang Tzu, you hack!" And yet, not ... quite. Because facebook is sooo easy and convenient.
At the same time I do like this blog. It has a sense of coherence and permanence that's entirely missing in the frenetic rush and confusion of facebook. Coming here to write, I don't have 12 people talking to me simultaneously (it's a rare skill, learning to hold 12 coherent conversations at the same time; hairdressers can do it, too) while eight thousand commercials, some laughably inappropriate, interrupt the flow of cute cats, puppies, amazing wildlife, glorious landscapes, hilarious cartoons, Daleks, Captain Picard and crew, Darth Vader, Han Solo ... not to mention the oddest elderly gent who wears a ludicrous orange wig and prompted me to post two images in protest:
And facebook ain't all wine and roses! I got myself called a "burrito brain" when I had the nerve to mention being interested in pre-Vedic Indian philosophies. I've been contacted by some of the strangest people in the known universe, from somewhat weird looking young ladies cutting slices off their own arms with razor blades, to African ministers eager to bring me into their church, to American wannabe servicemen with enormous machine guns, who now live in Kabul are are just dying to be pals with li'l ole me. Who are these people?! What are they?!
I've also met some terrific people on facebook. I've learned a lot, had some good laughs, and I think I'll always "do" facebook (unless President Duck -- I mean Mr. Orange Wig -- manages to "close down" the Internet to save us all from ourselves). But I also want to return to this blog. I liked it. I still do. It's a place where I can THINK, and write something which will still be on the page the next time I look, rather than being chased off the foot of the screen into some apocalyptic limbo by all the cute cats, commercials for poker machines, deals on $60,000 cruises and ... so on.
Blogging is different. It has a philosophy all its own. You just have to make time to sit down and commit to something more substantial than rattling out a few words in a comment before clicking on, and on, to the next, and the next glorious image or hilarious one-line gag, or cute puppy video. One thing about facebook: it seeds and nurtures the grasshopper mind! Which is a slippery slope indeed.
So -- my note to self (not quite a resolution, because it's not quite New Year) is ... slow down, chill out, make time, cogitate, let facebook look after itself for a while. I'm sure it'll be there when I get back, and --
Of course, the inevitable downside to blogging is that almost no one is reading what one writes (insert "LOL" and the mandatory emoticon of giggly face). Well, sure, that's now. Perhaps people will read this blog in future. When one crafts a book, the whole thing is done, finished -- work consuming months or even years -- before one expects it to be read. Another thing about facebook: it seeds and nurtures the mindset of "Now!!!", because if the post you've just written isn't seen/read/liked/shared by your pals in the next 24 hours, it will scroll down into the aforementioned limbo of the apocalypse.
Blogging offers something more permanent. So --
As the man said in the movie, I'll be back.
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