A Single Southern Guy in America

July 23, 2003

Thanks So Much

It's been a long time since I posted specifically to thank you. If you haven't had a chance to visit the Yeti this morning, take a moment to read his essay on Fantasy. It's about a number of things but this in particular made a lot of sense to me---

I�ve been fortunate enough to have something impactful enough to say that 200 people a day now read this site. I carry on e-mail correspondences with virtual ghosts � personalities and characters who saw something in my words and felt it worth it to respond with their own words and thoughts.

The readers here are good folks. Their comments and emails are always appreciated. If I don't automatically respond to some of the comments, like the ongoing debate in the Southern Belles post, it's because I want to see how you, the gentle reader, feel about the subject and my position.

Since being 'out-ed' to some of my local friends, I have an entirely new group of readers. The locals never comment--I think perhaps for the same reason I kept the blog address from them--I was scared. It's one thing to write to an audience of people who you don't know in real life. It's another thing entirely when something you write could be critiqued in the local pub, at the grocery store, at the lunch spot. I suppose I was lucky to have been blogging long enough to take it in stride. Some of the very people I write about, read their stories here. They value their privacy and I have developed a complicated code to protect their identites. Only they or the people who witnessed the event know whom I am talking about. I appreciate your visits and your reading my humble words a great deal. In the future, please don't be afraid to comment. In fact, we'll have a contest, the first local reader to comment wins a drink on me at All Stars.

Another passage from Yeti's post resonates--

Reading the blogs of our circle, and the virtual community as a whole, reminds me that we do indeed live lives of quiet desperation.

For those unfamiliar with the phrase, Yeti is alluding to the quote by Henry David Thoreau that reads in its entirety, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." It was true then and it is true now. I know that much of my writing is an effort to take that quiet desperation and mock it. Fortunately, there are many of you gentle readers who also like to mock the quiet desperation that so many of us endure.

The other item that struck me from the above passage is the notion of 'the blogs of our circle.' It is amazing to me how even in the blogosphere, our blogs have begun to form a clique very similar to, but also very different than the cliques of the real world. People often think of cliques as bad things and sometimes they are. However, cliques are usually composed of people with similar interests and values. This blog is about the South, rural areas, and being single and dating. It's pretty clear that most of the blogs in the circle I travel have some affinity to that theme. Their writings entertain and, oftentimes, inspire me.

That being said--

Thank you gentle readers for your time spent reading my humble words. Thank you for comments and emails which always cause me to think more.

Thank you local readers--you have shown me that it is okay to be yourself in person and online.

Thank you to the blogs of our circle--you are compatriots in this effort to survive in thrive regardless of quiet desperation.

Posted by Adam H at July 23, 2003 10:32 AM ~ Link Cosmos | Trackbacks (0)

Comments

No. Thank YOU. The pleasure is mine.

Posted by: Parkway Rest Stop at July 24, 2003 12:38 AM

*high five*

Posted by: Marci at July 24, 2003 10:27 AM