Well, here I am, doing what I’d vowed I’d never do: start a blog. I never understood the point of blogs. Why read someone blah-blahing on and on about their pathetic little life when you can read a book or newspaper or something actually worth reading?
So here are my reasons: one, my friend, an avowed technophobe and Luddite, is having trouble getting a book deal. Publishers are interested in her book proposal but she’s just a lowly writer, not an expert, so no deal.
But wait, I tell her. If you have a blog, you have prestige, street cred–you’re an expert! You’re somebody! I should know, because I’ve edited books written by bloggers who do nothing else. But they have a blog, so that means they exist, sort of like “I blog, therefore I am.”
So we are going to make big money blogging. Yeah, right…when pigs fly!
Which makes me think of Pigasus. For those of you who don’t know, Pigasus was invented by Ruth Plumly Thompson, the writer who took over the Oz books after L. Frank Baum died. Pigasus was, for those of you who haven’t figured it out yet, a pig with wings. And when you rode on his back, you spoke in verse. I was looking for an image of him from the Oz books when I found out Steinbeck apparently invented his own Pigasus and used him as his own personal stamp to symbolize “earthbound but aspiring.” Coincidence or copyright infringement: you decide. Here’s Steinbeck’s pig. I wish I had the Oz Pigasus to show as well.
But I digress. Since I mentioned she is not into learning any type of technology, I told her I would try blogging and report on how easy or frustrating it is.
My second reason to blog is because I used to write in a journal, but I’ve noticed my prying teenage daughter looking in it too many times. So I figure perhaps it makes more sense to hide in plain sight, so to speak.
I guess my third reason is that I am convinced that I am one of the world’s Invisible People, or those who are there but other people, those more substantial types, barely notice us. So this blog should prove that once and for all.
