The golden age of blogging has already passed...

I was thinking about making two posts about two posts that made quite a deep impression on me. I am somewhat lexically handicapped, grammatically hobbled, lyrically blind, given to verbal diarrhoea alternating with intellectual constipation, style deaf and more. And also incredibly lazy and time-wasting, forgot to mention that. I should have done this post earlier- but here it is.

First of all, why do we blog? I have probably five or ten readers, possibly two or three- but still, I go around mooning about making brilliant blog posts that would make you ask for more. So when I read this post at A Commonplace Blog, I found myself nodding, "yes, yes, this is it"- it described what I myself have been doing here:

Now, I hope you go to the blog and read the post in its entirety- because I found it moving. It spoke to me, and for me.

"“A commonplace book is what a provident poet cannot subsist without, for this proverbial reason, that ‘great wits have short memories’: and whereas, on the other hand, poets, being liars by profession, ought to have good memories; to reconcile these, a book of this sort, is in the nature of a supplemental memory, or a record of what occurs remarkable in every day’s reading or conversation. There you enter not only your own original thoughts, (which, a hundred to one, are few and insignificant) but such of other men as you think fit to make your own, by entering them there.”

Jonathan Swift, A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet"

That is what this blog is, right? A vanity may be, that I have made it public- but it is all me, my commonplace book, where I've been squirreling things that I've fancied.

Now, I hope you go to the blog and read the post in its entirety- because I found it moving. It spoke to me, and spoke for me. You know why?

Now is the time to mention the other post I wanted to write about: I read it via TCWJ- "Amy"

Soulberry writes,

"Amy hadn't been here for a while, and neither had I paid a visit to her's in a few weeks. So I went over to check today, and came across a post by her friend, Kate, informing us all about the shocking news that Amy was no longer with us."

So I went to her blog and read what her friend has written:

"My name is Kate. I was one of Amy’s closest friends before she passed away in July in a car accident. She was 26. For a long time I’ve been deliberating over whether I should post this and I haven’t known how to deliver the painful news to people I don’t know. I wasn’t even sure whether I should say anything at all, but I feel a responsibility to post this because Amy obviously felt this blog held some importance to her or she wouldn’t have continued posting until she did..."

"I can only assume that this blog meant something to her because she kept writing even after she recently changed jobs and started working in Canberra as a staff member handling media relations for Kevin Rudd’s office. It was physically and mentally taxing and because of it we hadn’t been in much contact for the few weeks before she became sick. But she kept posting here and so I feel you should at least know what has happened to her. "

And in the sidebar, I find-

RIP AMY

Amy has passed away, but this blog will remain as is to preserve the writing and effort put into it over many months. May her words remain eternal.

Being inadequate to the task of expressing honest emotions, let me go to The Commonplace Blog and borrow this:

"• How do you respond to this statement? “Blogging is just another hobby, like stamp collecting or hockey.”

"Blogging is more a way of life, of satisfying an urge to respond to stimuli and to receive feed back; to communicate, connect; to share thoughts on what has been seen or read or heard with like-minded people; to comment on significant events or entertainments. Life now doesn’t seem complete unless I'm actively contributing/participating in this way. Watching, listening, reading alone is now, just not enough. I’ll often see and photograph things for my blog. Blogging isn’t just a hobby, it’s a way of experiencing the world."

This might seem to go over the top, "Blogging is a way of life", like it is Hinduism or something- but I think most of us will agree with this- and I am sure Soulberry will. I definitely do. We get nothing out of it, but we put ourselves in it- whether we are good at blogging or not, we have made it our life.

So I felt moved at Amy's death, and the response to it- 98 comments to the post at her blog that she did not write- people sharing their friendship with a fellow-blogger-

"Hi,

I'm only 16 so not very good at handling death, but this got to me.

I always wondered why Amy stopped blogging but just thought it was cos she was probably busy with work etc. Never did I think of this..

Thank you so much Kate for letting us all know. Amys blog became a part of my life, reading up after anything happened in cricket, just to hear her opinion and laugh with her.

She brought cricket fans together all around the world.

I'll miss her.

Samina. x"

This is what keeps you blogging- not showing-off, but the community-feeling.

It feels meaningless to say this, "Rest in Peace, Amy', but I feel like saying it. And for the people who love Amy, 'We feel some of your pain..."

Sorry- but the funny thing is, Balajhi and Watcher and Siva will kill me for saying this- "If anything happens to me, someone should put a post of it here"

That is how important blogging feels important.

And I am glad Kate understood that about Amy.