Mortifaction

Oh dear. I seem to have caused some mortifaction* in the Bushrasphere.

It's always the unintended cuts which are the unkindest.

She blogged about a song that she liked. I commented that I liked it too, but I must be getting old for not seeing what was so original about it. In this blog I made fun of teenagers who blog about what they are listening too, but then did it myself. Bushra is not a teenager and I was not making fun of her. I called her 'dancy.' Bushra wrote that she feared that this would happen. That someone would categorize her. I apologize. But I didn't mean it that way.

This is all pretty much inside baseball to those of you just wandering by in the hall. Why should you care? Indeed, the rest of this blog entry is about blogging, so you I won't blame you if you skip it, innit.

I went to the big city today to record a piece for radio. If I already know you, I'll probably send you the info so you can listen. If not, then not.

A world-famous person walked by. I saw him but did not recognize him. So what? Did I tell you that I once shared carrot juice with Allen Ginsberg? Famous people come and they go.

But the engineer in the studio wanted to know about my previous pieces, so I told him. He said he remembered one. Then he had some interesting things to say about the election, and rather than drone on and on, and on, I gave him the URL to my blog, and said my opinion was there.

Maybe he has a blog. Maybe everyone on the trains I rode today has a blog. As I was walking into the studio I felt the need to use the restroom. "Donde esta el baño, por favor?" came to my mind. Not sure why. I thought I might say this to the person at the desk, but then I thought it might be rude and oddly nerdy. I'd stick to English. When I signed in, the lady at the desk picked up the phone and spoke, in Spanish, to the Asian woman who I was meeting, telling her that I had arrived. "Por favor, donde esta su .. uh .. el baño?" I said. One has to go down a flight of steps.

The connection with the sound engineer was in person, but then got handed off to the blogosphere. I don't think I have ever met someone in person who I met while blogging. Pretty sure about that. But I did meet a good friend, a longtime friend, over the internet, due to our mutual interest in computer modeling of biology and evolution. I've met him in person.

I've never met dancy Bushra in person, though I've told her she is welcome to visit our family if she ever comes to the undisclosed location where we live. I met her and know her only via blogs. She chanced on mine shortly after I started it.

I’m better in writing than in person. People usually respond to my writing by saying good things about it and about me. I chanced on a woman who is taking care of her ailing mother, and blogging about it, and we made friends through a series of emails. She’s a former journalist just like me. Hence a lot of typing occurred. It turns out that she also writes erotica. I haven’t read much erotica, ever, though I recently met (in person) a woman who writes very admirably about the erotic, mostly from her own experience. I can spot good writers, and she’s one. So there. This other woman, the one who takes care of her mother, writes mostly fictional erotica. I surmised that, and she told me I was correct. So there.

...Then, when I went to get the URL, I noticed that the page says they’re all fictional, right up at the top. I plead that I did not notice that when I went there. By the way, the layout on this page looks really blurry and bad on my browser. I’m not criticizing the design, just saying that the letters get huge and overlap other text.

Which brings us to Bible Man. At first I considered him just a curiosity, and pointed him out in this blog, the way you would point out a squirrel having sex with a pack of cigarettes. Then we exchanged some emails, and he became a person to me. Understand, he’s a person I consider very misguided, even dangerous. But he’s real. He didn’t just react with complete anger to what I said. He reacted with some irritation of course, but did not turn into an abuse-hurling bot, like so many might. We’ve sent more emails back and forth, and though I disagree with much of his approach to life, I can tell that some part of him is open to open thinking, and is listening to life and trying hard. He’s going to make a lot of horrible mistakes, but he seems like a person to me, and has earned my respect in the way that you can respect people who, by rights, should be your enemies. Very cautiously.

No, he did not cheat on his wife. He is also not a drinker. He says.

I think Bible man should sort himself out without making so much reference to God. But then, someone who thinks faith is the answer to all things, and finds undeniable truth in that, may not notice themselves misapplying faith. To him, that sounds impossible. But if I smash my hand with a hammer, should I try to heal it with Javascript? After all, Javascript is really powerful.

Is Bible Man my substitute for talking to the Republicans, now that the election is over? Well, if so, it should take up a lot less time than that job did. Am I trying to heal him? No way? Convert him? Save him? No way. He’s going to be what he is. Maybe at most I will plant a seed. He’s not my job, not my concern, not my project. But the internet blog phenomenon did make it possible for us to talk to each other about the deepest issues of his life.

How odd.

* For those of you wondering: "'Mortifaction?' Is that even a word?'" Well, no, it's not. But I bid you remember that I am a master of language, and I can do whatever I want. Even break the rules. This made-up word is a reference to "liquefaction," a real word found in Robert Herrick's poem. If you are planning to mock my mastery with my own typos, make sure you use a spell-checker first.