Mirror Mirror
How would I define my perfect blog entry? Well, as I've stated before, it would not be some recounting of external events. Even if I could avoid the tendency to make such laundry lists less droll I would hope that, upon reflection on these musings many years hence, I could take something from them beyond a chuckle. So, as funny as haircuts and horseradish and mailboxes can be (or not be?) they do not rank among what I feel are my best posts.
Go back and re-read why I have a blog. It's over there somewhere on the top right of the screen. This is my personal reflection space, a space where I can explore, evolve, emote and describe. My favorite posts are the ones where I learn how to do something better, or where I learn that something I do all the time has a benefit.
What I find so shocking is that others can, at times, relate to what it is I am saying. It means, of course, that I've made some kind of progress in the art of generalizing my experience. If you relate to it, then it is no longer mine alone.
The ability to extract general "universal" observations from personalized daily events is, to me, the work of self reflection and the main reason I have my blog. It is my emotional sandbox. The comments section of this blog is pretty sparse, and that's OK. But every once in a while I post something and get some e-mails in return. Lots of them are positive, and a few of them are actually negative. All of them, I promise, are anonymous here.
So how do I take the tangible events of e-mail feedback and apply then to a more generalized principle, thus salvaging this blog entry? Quite simple: The posts on here are sanitized, generalized, and striving for illumination of some greater truth. If you see in it some commentary on your personal life it is you who has made that connection.
I am sure most people have heard the story of the college professor who wished to debunk newspaper horoscopes. He gave each student a "personalized" reading and asked them to rate it in various areas to measure how accurate the reading was. Almost all of the students in the class agreed that the personalized horoscopes did a very good job of describing them. Some even felt it eerily so.
Of course, all of them were a bit ashamed when it was discovered that they had all been given the same reading.
We map ourselves onto everything we come into contact with and it is only with great effort that we also see how the things which happen around us map onto ourselves.
What's odd, perhaps, is that the made-up reading probably really did teach those students more about themselves than a "serious" individual reading. And it makes you wonder... how many times in our daily lives does that same pattern repeat itself?
And that is why I hope that of the dozens of ramblings on here I can, years hence, extract a few that are truly generalized, sanitized, and altruistically seeking truth. So that I can relate to them when I am far removed from the drama of the now.
They are, for lack of a better term, my time capsules, or the trail of breadcrumbs to help me understand how I will have gotten to wherever it is that I am going.
For those of you along for the ride, if we share a moment of sympatico along the way then that is, perhaps, the real benefit of this blog.
Go back and re-read why I have a blog. It's over there somewhere on the top right of the screen. This is my personal reflection space, a space where I can explore, evolve, emote and describe. My favorite posts are the ones where I learn how to do something better, or where I learn that something I do all the time has a benefit.
What I find so shocking is that others can, at times, relate to what it is I am saying. It means, of course, that I've made some kind of progress in the art of generalizing my experience. If you relate to it, then it is no longer mine alone.
The ability to extract general "universal" observations from personalized daily events is, to me, the work of self reflection and the main reason I have my blog. It is my emotional sandbox. The comments section of this blog is pretty sparse, and that's OK. But every once in a while I post something and get some e-mails in return. Lots of them are positive, and a few of them are actually negative. All of them, I promise, are anonymous here.
So how do I take the tangible events of e-mail feedback and apply then to a more generalized principle, thus salvaging this blog entry? Quite simple: The posts on here are sanitized, generalized, and striving for illumination of some greater truth. If you see in it some commentary on your personal life it is you who has made that connection.
I am sure most people have heard the story of the college professor who wished to debunk newspaper horoscopes. He gave each student a "personalized" reading and asked them to rate it in various areas to measure how accurate the reading was. Almost all of the students in the class agreed that the personalized horoscopes did a very good job of describing them. Some even felt it eerily so.
Of course, all of them were a bit ashamed when it was discovered that they had all been given the same reading.
We map ourselves onto everything we come into contact with and it is only with great effort that we also see how the things which happen around us map onto ourselves.
What's odd, perhaps, is that the made-up reading probably really did teach those students more about themselves than a "serious" individual reading. And it makes you wonder... how many times in our daily lives does that same pattern repeat itself?
And that is why I hope that of the dozens of ramblings on here I can, years hence, extract a few that are truly generalized, sanitized, and altruistically seeking truth. So that I can relate to them when I am far removed from the drama of the now.
They are, for lack of a better term, my time capsules, or the trail of breadcrumbs to help me understand how I will have gotten to wherever it is that I am going.
For those of you along for the ride, if we share a moment of sympatico along the way then that is, perhaps, the real benefit of this blog.
posted by Ed at 1:45 PM
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