Whenever Tarleisio, my favorite blogger and also a good friend to this blog, posts a new article on MoltenMetalMama (or a new recipe on The Idiot’s Éclair), it becomes my top priority to hasten on over there to read what she has to say. Few people writing in (on?) the blogosphere today write with as much eloquence, emotion, poignancy, enthusiasm and skill as does she.
Such was the case a couple of weeks ago when she posted Singular Epiphanies. I hastened, read, and then scrolled back to the top of the page to begin reading it again. That’s when I noticed that she’d changed the wording on her blogroll link to Fried Dog Leg from “Another blog I follow” to “The Fried Dog Leg Guide to Life.” And that’s (bless your huge Viking heart, Tarleisio) when I had a singular epiphany of my own.
Like life itself, blogs are—or should be—works in progress; without constant activity—a frequent stirring of the pot, if you will—stagnation quickly sets in. And so it’s been for Fried Dog Leg. For too long I’ve felt that this blog has become much like a rudderless sailing ship, adrift in the Doldrums, without a freshening breeze to fill its sails. It wanders aimlessly, goes nowhere fast, and generally fails to live up to my original expectations of it.
From the outset I envisioned Fried Dog Leg as a humor blog, and the title—an irreverent corruption of Firedoglake—lent promise to that vision. It was never my intention to imitate Firedoglake or to duplicate its content in any way; no way can I compete with Jane and her crew, all of whom possess better political acumen than I—and the resources necessary to churn out first-rate political content all day long, day after day after day. No, my intention was to do something original. Something funny.
Sadly, I discovered early on that I couldn’t write funny consistently. Many of the topics I choose to write about don’t lend themselves well to the humor treatment; they’re far too serious and much too important to be dealt with lightly, and any attempt to inject humor into them is to minimize their importance and deny them the respect they need for people to take them seriously. Then, too, frequent bouts of depression—no doubt brought on by our ongoing national decline—show a marked tendency to stifle humorous expression. No surprise there, though, as depression typically shows utter contempt for anything with a humorous bent. (But that’s not to say that humor won’t find its way into these pages from time to time.)
To my way of thinking, the best way out of this dilemma is to make a few changes—some subtle, some obvious—to my whole approach to writing and maintaining this blog. For starters, I’ll put more effort into writing about the things that stoke my passions; marijuana legalization, the environment, sustainable communities, and the building of new institutions to replace those that no longer work.
Look for me to post more videos (up to now blogging has, for me, always been about the writing); occasional short excerpts—when they show keen insights about the society in which we live—from books I’m currently reading or have recently read, and to share personal stories, thoughts, ideas, insights and opinions about the many challenges now facing humankind. And, of course, I’ll be posting links to other sources and resources and calls to action, and to other bloggers who carry the torches of human progress.
As Fried Dog Leg moves forward, I’ll plead with you to face reality and to open your mind to new ideas, and try to convince you that making voluntary lifestyle changes now is easier and less painful than having those changes thrust upon you in a time and place not of your choosing. Whether you like it or not, whether you want to or not, you will soon be dealing with the inevitable (as will we all). The whole world has entered crisis mode, and the only chance for survival is to stop doing the things that led to this crisis and start doing the things that will lead us out of it.
When a pokkalips puts a liplock on your ass, you need to have as many tools at your disposal as possible in order to deal with the aftermath. Fried Dog Leg aims to provide you with an important tool to assist in that essential undertaking.
Call it the Fried Dog Leg Guide to Life.
Posts
One of the best things about the internet is the physical and metaphorical ability to connect the hithertofore unconnected - in people, in mindset, in in- as well as disinformation. Nowhere is this more true than in the jungle world of blogging.
ReplyDeleteHere's your soapbox. Step on it. So you did.
Along the way and on the path, you would have discovered many things, been irritated and agitated and fired up and turned around, and in that process of discovery, you found other voices in the void, some related by mindset or inclination, some not, some you knew before, and some you only recently discovered.
I was one of them, one of those disembodied yells in the abyss that gave you a second's pause for thought, and even if you and I are a generation apart, even if we are separated by distance as well as time, we've both of us lived long enough to recognize a fellow non-conformist when we see one! ;-)
In a time when events prove every day that conformity is NOT the answer, when the world teeters on several brinks and several futures, most of them bleak, all of them challenging to a degree we can scarcely begin to imagine, humanity as a whole needs - new solutions, new mindsets, new solutions to a time where the comfort zone rug is pulled out from under us every day.
We also need those who can provide a voice for that, a voice that can give us, however outrageous or unusual, some smidgen of hope, some vision that regardless of what happens, there might just possibly, be something resembling a future for humanity on the other side of that change.
You do.
Thank you.
Wow, Tarleisio! I'm amazed! I'm astounded! I might even be a little bit flabbergasted. But most of all, I'm overwhelmed. It's comments like yours that validate this blog, that give meaning and purpose to my meager efforts, that give me hope that there is a better future in store for humankind than the one I usually imagine, that give me the courage and the inspiration to continue on. For that--for all of that--I thank you.
ReplyDeletePretty eloquent for 7 AM, huh? ;-)
ReplyDeleteNever fear, Phil, so long as I have a working broadband connection, you'll always have at least reader, and one source of online aggra---errr, INspiration!
Pretty eloquent for any time of day (or night), now that I stop to think about it. I would even argue that your comment was better than the original post.
ReplyDelete