Mukilteo Musings

BLOGS

I just have to say a couple of things about blogs. A few years ago--like three--I never could have imagined what an impact such things would have on our culture. There was no such entity. My daughter and all of her friends keep "Live Journals" which are really much more sophisticated than my little blog.

I never read my daughter's Live Journal because to me that would be like reading her diary. I strongly believe that children need a sense of privacy. And it is interesting how that works--if you respect your child's privacy, they end up telling you all about themselves anyway and the communication is open and based on trust which is the key. Anyway, these Live Journals are the way of life for these kids. They post their prom pictures; they schedule parties and arrange relationships in a manner that could never have been imagined when I was that age.

My blog has had some interesting results. We met a neighbor down the street who happens to work in one of my hubby's programs at the U. He invited us to a scrumptious dinner at his house, cooked by his lovely Thai wife. He found us based on my pictures which looked remarkably similar to his view and figured we must be neighbors and we are.

One of my son's best friends, Beth, has a father, Chuck, who is an honest to goodness published book author and regular columnist for the Mukilteo Beacon and a contributor to the Seattle Times. It scares me a little that such a bright and talented man visits my blog but I am happy to share my pictures with him. Sometimes, I find out on his blog the other half of the story of my son's activities. I really love it when he links to me; I still have not figured out how to make my comments work on his blog but I'll snag Kaley to help me with that. His blog is definitely worth reading as is his book. So I will link to him linking to me, "The House Where I Live":

http://blogs.salon.com/0002813/2005/06/04.html

And a quote:


"I own all these brilliant observations to Janet, whose blog is listed over there on the left (Mukilteo Musings) and whose son, Lucas, is currently visiting my daughter in Texas. Lucas likes geography, too.

Janet has, from time to time, in her blog, made some exceptionally salient statements about the culture up here. For one thing, she's noted several times that Seattleites (and most of us consider ourselves residents of Seattle, at least if we once lived within the city limits, however briefly) have a nationally known tendency to be exceptionally polite. And then we ignore you.
It's true, too, in a general sense. Your typical Seattle resident will wave you across the street even if you've got a red light, help you change a tire, deliver your baby in the backseat, lend you a cell phone, etc., and then pick up their book or get back on their mountain bike and that's the end of story. We're not great conversationalists. It has something to do with the weather.

Not me, you understand. Not Janet either, I assume. Just most of us."

© Copyright 2005 Chuck Sigars.

I just love this quote because it corroborates not only what I have read but also what I have experienced. Corroboration is one of my favorite things in life.

Also, I regularly visit some political blogs and religious blogs. We are trying to get one going for our church. This is interesting because several members of our church are of the elderly variety and they glaze over whenever I bring the topic to their attention. Other personal blogs I visit that I credit for getting me started are Noelle's http://www.go2thestart.com/ and Yano's http://www.yanowhatimean.com/index2.php. Noelle and Yano are both scary bright and talented young women and I love reading about their perspectives on issues. Noelle is on the east coast and Yano is in Chicago so they give me view points from across the country.

And finally, I have discovered that I have kept old friends, new friends, and family members informed of the daily life of my family. This is very satisfying to this "Seattleite" who doesn't have the chance or the time to get together for coffee with my favorite folks in the world.

What a thing these blogs are!!