Blogospheric Response
Blogospheric Response
Among the
wonders of the Blogosphere is how much one can learn every day -- not
just from the content of others' blogs, or via the countless links to
interesting, entertaining, educational and informative pages --
but also from the response one gets to one's own blog. In this
case I refer to DeanLand hereabouts, and e-mail, phone calls and IMs
that came in after the two immediately prior entries, regarding my bout
with Labyrinthitis.
The majority were of the "get well soon" or "is there anything I can
do?" type of message. Some spoke of their experience with the inner ear
malady, or as noted earlier, recall of their relatives who had also
dealt with it. For the most part, the response was concern, good
wishes, and some asking to be kept up to date.
Concern of Another Sort
There were two responses, both delivered over the phone (to be precise, one over a landline connection and one via Skype),
voicing concern and considerable surprise that I had been so open in
such a public sort of forum that I was ill with anything, much less a
lesser known and weird (dizzy?) sort of virus. On a blog, no less!
One person worried that this would be bad for business -- that it is
never wise to let those with whom does business to show any weakness,
malady, frailty, chink in the armor, etc. I had only two business
concerns over my week of wooziness, those being the inability to get
certain areas of work completed, the other being some correspondence
that just had to wait until the virus ran its course. The ability
to concentrate for any length of time was all but lost during the
course of the virus, so composition of a few e-mails, as well making
some calls, was out of the question. I felt this showed, if
nothing else, that lucidity and better judgment had not been imparied.
The work, thankfully, could wait. So yes, I am a week behind, and
will have to catch up, but that is neither insurmountable nor the worst
fate one could encounter. The world continued to turn in my relative absence.
The other person chided me for what they peceived as my general bad
form, posting anything that might show oneself in a bad light.
End of story, they said: never do it again, bad form. People will
lose confidence in you, they cautioned me, don't risk it.
Not Such Risky Business
FWIW, I know that friends, family, business associates, clients, and
various linker click-throughs from who-knows-where (and all those
search engine referrals looking for either old graphics or some post
from the past who end up on the home page due to the limits of their
search engine of choice) end up reading these posts. And I am not
too concerned that a few dents in the fender might show up from time to
time.
None of us are perfect. I don't offer perfection as a product or
service. I don't expect those who come here to be in search of
perfection, or to anticipate that I offer this as part of the
package. This goes for friends, family, associates, clients,
strangers, and the visitors who end up here even though they were
actually seeking naked pictures of a certain charlatan ("Dr!") radio
talk show hostess or that actress whose picture I thought was so funny
and posted here a few years ago. Apparently if I type their names
into the blog, the traffic will increase. But increases from
people who show up and then leave in disgust really provide none of us
any benefit. So what would be the use of typing Jennifer Love
Hewitt or Dr. Laura's naked pictures?
Oops, there I go being less than perfect again.
More Work To Do
Which brings to mind a pending entry about blogging that is sitting in
a state of composition, not quite formulated, not quite sticking to any
sort of original outline, not quite saying what I wanted to express or in
the tone intended or any of that. There's also a follow-up piece
for The Media Center's Morph blog.
That, too, is in a state of compositional flux. In this case,
though, the task at hand is to shorten the word count while retaining
the gist, as well as adding some support content that managed to slip
my mind during the meat of the topic.
And I really feel motivated to complete the Morph piece because A) they've been so incredibly patient with me; and, B) the earlier Morph essay was warmly received, got trackbacks, crosslinks, and blog comments all over the place -- and there's one more reason: C)
it enables me to publish White Paper or essay type blog content that
seems somehow out of place in these parts, and yet highly appropriate
over at Morph.
The bottom line is voice. A blog (or a blogger)
expresses words (and thought, thesis, attitude, intent, worldview, et
al) in a manner that has a voice. Voice develops and
matures over time. It is a continuous process. One
can have different voice, or tones of voice, in different
locations. Think of William Safire, one tone in his essays that
appeared on the Times' OpEd page, another tone in his Sunday Times
Magazine weekly On Language column. Same goes for blogs, tones,
different addresses with varying shades.
Notice how in this medium of the written word, published onto the net, the word used is voice. Not a literary term, such as style, but voice. The internet, perhaps more to the point, blogging, provides a platform for voice. More about that in subsequent posts.
Leopards, Spots, & Forms of Discourse
Returning to the discussion that began this entry, being out sick
managed to both frustrate me, give me cabin fever, enable me to get to
better know the daytime activities of my cat, and learn a little bit
more about some of the people I deal with.
I was feeling dispirited over my lack of activity/contribution to a
certain joint venture project. The fellow involved in that
effort was completely at ease with things, no pressure, no
hassle. He urged me to just get well. We IMed a time or two
through the week. Now that health seems to be overtaking the
virus, I look forward to getting my portion of responsibility and tasks
completed. It is both pending and looming, in that I feel an
internal pressure to get back to holding up my part of the venture.
On Friday I spoke with someone who was awaiting an e-mail from me, who
upon hearing the "itis" in Labyrinthitis, told me she was glad I was
getting over it, and that anything ending in "itis" sounded
ominous. She also said to get the e-mail out as soon as I was
feeling up to it. My concerns over the delay were allayed by her
good attitude.
A client called Friday to follow up on an e-mail and to see where some
things stood, then spent most of the time on the phone wishing me well
and declaring that I should feel absolutely no pressure with regard to
the project, and to just rest it out and feel better.
Two lunches, one more social than business, were rescheduled, no problem.
Some contacts from a business meeting held three weeks ago called, and
in a convergence of sorts, we all agreed to arrange a joint get
together next week or shortly thereafter.
In a glimmer of absolute truth providing a certain gestalt,
one
other particular associate managed to completely forget that I was ill,
treated
it as total news when I reminded him that this was why I would not be
driving into the city for a meeting. This same person had earlier
in the week written an IM chat response wishing that I get better, then
in the next sentence was asking my opinion on certain aspects of a
project. He also sent numerous IMs and e-mails in an attempt to
engage me in a discussion that required concentration.
What does this tell us? That the same people who offer up stock responses (with no depth or, sometimes, truthfulness
or feeling) in discussion -- are equally capable and apparently
predisposed to offering up the same sort of knee-jerk (supposedly
proper and polite) responses in IM, and mean it as little in that
discourse as in one-to-one conversation. Leopards/spots, zebras/stripes.
It also points out that working relationships and one's interactions
with others become somewhat clearer when the normal flow of action is
subject to change. Responses from others offered degrees of
clarity and insight. One might even view this as the silver lining
in the cloud, or wooziness, that plagued me all of last week.
A Different Labyrinth
So now it is onward and upward and all eyes on next week, when (fingers crossed, wood gets knocked, one eye blinking, pinky
fingers interlocked) health is restored and productivity is
resumed. And I go forth with clearer understanding and
appreciation of those very same friends, family, associates, partners,
clients and others, as the net effect (er, benefit) of a week of
wooziness.
Maybe that should be classified as "hearing with the inner ear."
