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Monday, March 23, 2009

Thoughts from the Veranda – More Perspectives

DSC07789%255B4%255D If you haven’t noticed, my thoughts from the veranda almost always coincide with Camillo’s travel. When he is gone my schedule (HIS schedule of meals / conversation / drinks / naps / bedtime that I work around) dissolves and I become disoriented, lost and introspective. Today it is raining again so I am not actually on the veranda but metaphorically, I am thinking and contemplating life from the veranda.
 
Yesterday, I read a blog The Butler and Bagman Chronicles and something Mark (B&B) said has taken me more than 24 hours to digest and to question if this is how I feel and if not should I. He is talking about blogging and how he needs to take time away from the blog world, he says that it is "... Difficult, sometimes, to remember that there is a real world that I live in". The real world, what is a real world, who’s real world?
 
I am in my office, in our home situated on a high hill north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – this is real. At a distance there are dogs and roosters marking their (real) world with the sound of their voices. Outside there is sound of rain, an occasional motorcycle on the road below, birds singing as they finish their ‘real’ day.  Inside my house it is silent; the only sounds are the hum of the computer and the tap of my fingers on the keyboard. If I stop writing for a minute, I can hear my heart beating in my ears it is so silent. (and I have a cold so my ears are stopped up) This is my ‘real’ world. If I type out a recipe, an observation, enter a photo or I tell a story about my ‘real’ world and I send it out into cyberspace as a blog does it become imaginary? Not of the real world.
 
I spend maybe 2 hours a day either writing or reading blogs (okay lets be fair - 3 hours, on a rainy day maybe 4). I read about 'real' life in Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Canada, India, other cities in Brazil and sometimes I just browse to see what is out there. There are stories about families, and dogs and the meals that have been cooked, restaurants that have been enjoyed, their ‘real’ worlds. I enjoy poetry and photography from these many different ‘real’ worlds. I often leave comments when moved by corresponding ideas and have a feeling of being a part of a very large, wide, rich ‘real’ world. This could be living vicariously (experienced through somebody else rather than at first hand, by using sympathy or the power of the imagination) but what is being a couch potato? Watching 10 hours of baseball, soccer, football, the Olympics, old Arnold Schwarzenegger movies on TV every weekend, is this living in the ‘real’ world?
 
Sad but true, blogging has taken me off the mountain top, expanded my world, added people – real people not characters from a book – to my day that I can talk with (in English), exchange ideas, keep (no matter how remote) contact with. It has added people to care about. From my perspective, sitting here in this isolated place above the forest, the world of blogs is a real world. Should this be true? Maybe another day on the veranda would answer that. Should I take warning that my life is now out in cyberspace, for now no. As long as I have family, have a husband, spend 2 hours at the gym speaking Portuguese, have interest in learning new things (mostly recipes), as long as this blogging thing is a hobby like any other hobby then it is a good thing and not to worry.

4 comments:

  1. That was just a great post!

    I so prefer meeting real people in the Blogosphere over watching TV, or reading about made-up characters in books, though I enjoy reading books.

    We are all sharing our cultures and learning about cultures around the world. I think that is wonderful!

    We get a few laughs, too.

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  2. I think "real" is what you make it. I have read novels in which the fictitious characters seemed more real than some acquaintances. Novels can tell truths through fiction.

    The people I meet through blogging seem very real to me. I'm sure some are posting with a persona that is not like their true selves, but most blogs seem to come from the heart.

    I like knowing the rainy season is starting in Brazil from your blog. I enjoy reading posts by a young man teaching in Korea. I love the limericks written by a man in Australia. I like to know what people are reading and what they think about everything from the news to religion. I don't always agree, but I like to read about it. And, if it is something that doesn't interest me or angers me, I can go on to another blog without offending anyone.

    I know what you are feeling without Camillo not being there. I tend to travel more than my husband ---and when I am away I don't miss him much because I am busy at a conference or visiting old friends. But when he is away, the place seems so empty without him. I miss all the little things he does for me, everything from cooking dinner to carrying things to or from the car for me. When he's gone, I suddenly have time to myself and can do anything I want, and I don't feel like doing much of anything.

    I am going to be a less active in reading, commenting, and posting for about 3 weeks. I have to do my taxes and I am taking over my mother's very complicated taxes this year (from a relative who has been doing them for years.) He gave me a 2-hour tutorial on how to do them on Monday after which I was sure I knew what to do. On Tuesday when I started to work on them, I was totally lost. I hope to be back and in full swing after April 15th.

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  3. Your life as you live it is your reality - we connect and learn about others' realities ? PeterUK

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  4. I'm glad you blogged about my blog...the word blog is beginning to sound ridiculous to me...blog blog blog...but I agree with you that there isn't a difference really. When people motivate other people to think, change or tweak the way we see things...how much more real does it get? I spent an hour in a meeting with someone today, shook his hand, flesh to flesh...but I think I know you better. Thanks.

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