Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Catching Myself

Catching Myself in a Store Window
(Naturally, it's a bookstore.)

I once wrote a poem about things that hold our reflection without our consent, other people's sunglasses, water, television screens, etc.  A mirror, when you hold it in your purview, is like a conspirator.  You purposely use it to see yourself.  A store window though....

To see my own reflection juxtaposed in something else is sometimes jarring.  I was walking by a pawn shop in my poem, and seeing my reflection at the same time I was viewing worn objects made me aware of my own aging.  

It seems to me nature is one place I go to purposely not think about me.  Yet, on the entrance to the Wallis Falls trail:



...there I was.

I'm thinking about this more and more as I go down the path of being a blogger.  I've had people tell me blogging is about community, about connecting, but I wonder about the egocentric aspect of taking thoughts and making them public.  I don't have the same feel for these electronic words, nor quite the same tone, as my personal journal.  I'm aware of some aspect of performance here, or presentation, and of a need to be courteous, a need to self-censor.  Is that an accurate reflection of me?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Catching Myself

Catching Myself in a Store Window
(Naturally, it's a bookstore.)

I once wrote a poem about things that hold our reflection without our consent, other people's sunglasses, water, television screens, etc.  A mirror, when you hold it in your purview, is like a conspirator.  You purposely use it to see yourself.  A store window though....

To see my own reflection juxtaposed in something else is sometimes jarring.  I was walking by a pawn shop in my poem, and seeing my reflection at the same time I was viewing worn objects made me aware of my own aging.  

It seems to me nature is one place I go to purposely not think about me.  Yet, on the entrance to the Wallis Falls trail:



...there I was.

I'm thinking about this more and more as I go down the path of being a blogger.  I've had people tell me blogging is about community, about connecting, but I wonder about the egocentric aspect of taking thoughts and making them public.  I don't have the same feel for these electronic words, nor quite the same tone, as my personal journal.  I'm aware of some aspect of performance here, or presentation, and of a need to be courteous, a need to self-censor.  Is that an accurate reflection of me?

No comments:

Post a Comment