"The fact is that we are living in a time when the decision to be an artist, to continue to create in spite of everything that's happening around us, IS a radical political act. This is, I feel, quite a dark time, potentially destructive to the best and most noble aspects of the human spirit. And that's precisely why it is terribly important for artists in all disciplines to continue to create, even when it feels like there's little market and little appreciation for our work. Just doing it, and making the difficult decision to continue to do it - to live creative lives that celebrate what life is and can be - is both defiant and affirming, and it's crucially important. People need to know that someone they know - a neighbor, a friend, a cousin - is committed to the arts. Young people particularly need to know this." - Beth AdamsI began blogging back in the fall of 2008 after running into a community of bloggers who gathered around the philosophical and political rightist blog of a published author and psychologist. I became fascinated that a man on the right could express spiritual ideas of such sophistication, ideas that I had always connected with progressive leftist politics. It was a train wreck for me. I struggled to stay with them and in the end left off, hopelessly excluded from the rhetoric even though I loved some of the clarity of view. The fall out from that time was a closeness I felt with two of the community, Walt who blogged his spiritual, largely Eastern selected writings from somewhere near Eugene, Oregon, and Don, posting as Robin Starfish, a photographer and haiku guy living in small town Idaho.
Finally, I began my own blog as a platform for my new poetry that I had begun posting on other people's websites while my connections to those others grew. I got tagged by Don as Jonny Applepoem for my frequency of leaving poems behind me as I travelled through the blogosphere.
My experience in blogging is by no means unique, as if I am some kind of special writer. I met some wonderful people in the early days, following links and suggestions along the way. There was Lucy, the lovely English lady who lives in Britanny. There was at her suggestion, Dale, who is a part time massage therapist in my Portland area. Jozien and Rachel, both independent of each other from the Whitehorse area of the Yukon. So many others.
My part in it, I am creative on two fronts. I write a ton of poetry, write at the drop of a hat, and also I have perfected a simple style of presenting a wide ranging spread of topics in a readable blog post form. I want to say that this has been easy, at least the blogging part of it has been easy. As ever in the creative life, a bunch of the success is based on consistent practice.
Blogger (Google) is a big part of my success, referring to my blog as a resource. I am now experiencing never less than 250 page views a day globally with Google being the primary referral. I have been viewed approaching 150,000 times, a view count from June of 2009 so it misses all the views of the first seven months of daily posting. That result I believe is typical, even modest for a four year run. If my experience is at all typical, then so much of blogging is social. You do not have to worry that much about whether you are any good at all this stuff. Just begin. Here is my blogging post top ten list as of today:
1. Castle Walls - Reprise 5582 page views
2. Getting Right Sized - 3WW 4439 page views
3. The Ravens Call 3772 page views
4. What Coyote Gives 3180 page views
5. Pig Iron - Reprise 2533 page views
6. For Jozien 2121 page views
7. In Honor Of Robert Johnson 1671 page views
8. Good And Evil 1384 page views
9. The Outlaw Road 1223 page views
10. All Bent Over 1081 page views
Love the quote. More so, I appreciate your smiling face! It's a great pic Christopher. It might be fuzzy...but I chalk it up to my old eyes.
ReplyDeleteNo, the fuzzy pic is the fact that I must push the button awkwardly and it moves the cam.
ReplyDeleteYes, the quote is a cry of a consistent rebellion that has been part of my life since 1966 and it arose from pressures that had built in my childhood from perhaps 1955 when I turned 10.
and while we can measure page views (my god, i do not want to, having shut down my old blog as my numbers one day became staggering because of some arbitrary note by google) how much have we grown as individuals? immeasurably, i think, with distances immeasurable yet to go. and what love have we experienced? again, immeasurable.
ReplyDeletei am so glad.
it would be interesting to know what became of that original group.
and, as far as connecting to old posts, i have been wondering, my memory so faulty these days, if you did in fact post another photograph of you as a young dancer. or did i make that up? i can't be sure.
on my daughter's computer right now i am unsettled with new aspects of blogger that i was not aware of, but understand in the context of what they do for us is free and so they use us as a platform to make money. the advertisements are not present on my computer, stuck as it is in an older format, but they appear everywhere through posts and comment forums. i am shocked. i will have to let this knowledge settle a little. it is interesting in another aspect, too, causing me to wonder how often i rely on my own personal experience to reflect reality, when reality is most likely quite independent of me.
xo
erin
Over the past forty years I've worked creating products and ideas for other people, primarily for their gain, not mine. Now I'm focused on unleashing my long suppressed creative side for me. A chuckle came forth as I read the line something about "...being a market or not." At a point the exploration and satisfaction outweighs all else.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your effort.