11/40ths of my quest completed.

Of Spinal Tap, Comments, India and Lila

‘At’s right, luv, THIS one goes to 11.  When you’ve made it 10 days, and you’ve got your keyboard tuned up to 10… where do you go from there?   Nowhere.  But THIS one goes to eleven!’

I’m trying to make these things more than just a countdown celebrating my non-use of a social media app that has only existed just under one-quarter of my life. I’m passing the age where almost exactly 1/2 of my life passed before the internet existed, half after. Rather, before it was widely used, around, say 1993.

That means that “This is Spinal Tap” came out before the internet ruined everything. I mean, before the internet made everything mega-awesome. The truth about technology and the internet is that it just does stuff faster.  The “stuff” hasn’t changed, only the speed at which it can be done and propagated… and responded to, and the breadth of propagation. We’re in for some interesting times, bridging the tension between local communities remaining as parochial and local as they have always been, and our conversations and on-line peer-groups being global, cosmopolitan and tailored to personal interests, with little or no real-world requirements to engage or disengage.

India
Which brings me to notice that my audience (if I dare call it such), here and on Goodreads, skews surprisingly Indian.  I’m intrigued.  I love India, get along with Indians… always have since Prekash Bakhta (sp?) moved into our little mining town during high school.  I’ve taken Khartal lessons via Skype, from a Rajastani musician, and have high hopes of visiting Jaipur someday.  I have a statue of Ganesha on my writing desk, to remove the obstacles to publication.  (He/She/It currently holds the receipts for a very important certified letter I sent, seeking information pertinent to my book.) I occasionally do yoga, and hang with a professor of religion fluent in Sanskrit on Facebook (I have to write him a note… He’s among the missed, right now.) But none of this explains the organic attraction of so many Indian followers, when virtually NOTHING I write seems India-relevant.

Onward… whatever will be will be.  May the adventure unfold.  Like that lotus flower at Ganesha’s feet.

Comments
I’ve been writing here since May of 2010 and have MAYBE 20 comments?  I checked my settings, and perhaps had them set up in a way that discouraged comments in the past?  Hopefully my new setting will foster more engagement.

What?  You think I’m trying to convert my blog into Facebook?  I do declare, I resemble that remark!! Word among the alleged knowledgeable, vis a vis publishing, is that getting published today requires three things:  Good writing, a wicked good/unique query letter, and a demonstrated platform or audience reach.  So, to some extent yes, I’m trying to expand my blog’s reach for that inevitable day when my book launches.

Thoughtful Gifts

A touch-point through decades of woodworking.

I’d also like to take a second today to remind a certain person that they bring great things into the world, through their thoughtful engagement and attention to others. Some 20+ years ago a friend gave me this book, “A Reverence for Wood.”   She was raised by good people to do good things, and I cherish the book and her repeatedly thoughtful involvement in my life over the years. Oh, and her husband is the guy who linked me up with the aforementioned Sanskrit professor.  Man, what a tangled web of  Karma and Lila. Serendipity. Luck. Grace. Whatever you want to call it.  It’s all good.  But mine goes to 11.