Displacement

Sometimes, I forget what city or country I'm in.

It happens particularly when I go somewhere new by myself, where there are no familiar 'reference people' to clearly tell me where I am. Or if someone from a past life-place has come to visit and we discover somewhere new together. Or if I'm reading a book that takes place in one of my former areas and get mentally transported to that place.

This morning, for example. House-sitting in the Chicago suburbs, I sit down to read a UK edition of a novel that takes place in New York. I'm reading about Central Park, but the spellings and word choice convince me that I'm clearly reading from the British perspective, so I look up at the end of the chapter and reminisce about how lovely the Park would be on a sunny morning like today, so far away across the ocean... and then realize that it's not across an ocean at all. Somehow I've found that my body is in the Chicago area, which suddenly seems lacking simply because it's not where my brain or my book had put me at the time of reading.

I am continually 'displaced'. Not sure how this realization makes me feel.

On Blogging

I know. What you're all thinking (myself included) is that the last thing this world needs is yet another blog about blogging. It's terribly self-referential, self-important, and more often than not just incredibly annoying. But here we are.

The truth is this: I have tremendous respect for regular, thoughtful bloggers.

How many times have I begun blogs that didn't last past the third, or second, or sometimes even first entry? How many of my friends can say the same thing? Sure, I tweet, I use facebook, but both of those actions are almost entirely mindless and require a 4-second attention span. This activity, on the other hand, actually requires a bit more thought for quite a bit longer. (I have to admit, I got completely distracted by a bird outside the window for about half a minute in the middle of the past sentence... even only this far in. Really, brain?) Well, at least it requires it for longer. We all wish that everyone would use a bit more thought.

I recently read a surprisingly interesting blog post about blogging (if I can somehow find it again, I'll eventually put a link in here... not happening easily right now), where the author spoke of the blogger's duty to his or her readers. To keep going, to make their writing interesting, truthful and relevant, and to maintain some sort of consistent tone so that their readers know how to interact with what they publish. I found myself thinking what a great post it was, how wonderful this blogger was, and how rubbish all of those terrible, uneven, mindless blogs were that clutter up the internet, un-updated and without sense...

Then I looked in the mirror.

Fine. New commitment. New blog. (Well, considering this one only had one post of one line... essentially new). All going along with my still new-ish city.

Let's see how we do.

Chicago.

New city. New academic course. New life stage. Clearly, time for a new blog.