To quote Meatloaf...'but I won't do that'

I made a decision some time ago that I wasn’t going to post a second comment at a blog that did not reciprocate my first comment with a visit to and comment at any one of my blogs.

Why? 

Well, for the simple reason that I’m reading the failure to reciprocate as a lack of interest in engaging in a conversation with me.  That so, I’m not one to impose myself on someone who shows no interest in talking to me.

As I’ve said many times before, I blog mainly for the conversations that my posts will generate.  The post is merely a prompt.  It’s not the main event.  It may be for others but it almost always isn’t for me.  

There are some posts, admittedly, that I write with the overriding intention to share what I think may be useful insights and experiences.  These are found mainly in my Passion, Play and Purpose blog.  

But even there, I post with the hope that my posts will generate conversations.  

It doesn’t matter to me whether someone has grand or scintillatingly insightful comments to make or not.  I know that my own comments at other blogs are hardly of that order.

But I do appreciate a comment because it is a natural part of a conversation that I’ve either initiated with a  post or  engaged in with a comment I’ve left at a blog.

It doesn’t matter that the topics on their blog and mine are different, even vastly different.  It does matter that we talk.

It’s like being at a party and saying something to someone to which they say nothing.  I think that’s rude. 

Change the topic, by all means, if you have nothing to *add* or if the topic doesn't interest you.  Ask a question, if that helps. 

But not reciprocating, which in blog world means (to me), ‘I’m not interested in talking with you’, is telling me that I’m wasting my time leaving a comment at your blog.  

What are your thoughts on this subject?  I’d love to know and I will continue the conversation at your blog whether on the same topic or another…I love conversations, remember? J

You said and I said and we heard

At the risk of boring you to tears by repeating myself, I am going to repeat myself - I absolutely love your comments.

Of course I'm speaking to those of you who have left comments. I mean, just look at them! They're not some BSC comments, the likes of which I've described in my other blog, The Blog Doctor is In. On the contrary, they are conversation pieces, in and of themselves, each one of them and I am truly grateful.

I wouldn't blog if I didn't hold out hope that my posts would kindle some fine conversations which, I'm chaffed to say, they have. Instead, I'd maintain a private journal which is what I had been doing until I started my blogs.

But the thought of having visitors drop into my cyber home, snoop around a little and then choose to leave behind a couple of their thoughts and feelings and share some of their experiences with me, all from the distant outposts of their laptops or workstations so many miles away, is just so alluring. Heck, it's more than alluring.  It's exciting. It's thrilling. It's exhilarating.  It's...alright, alright, if I don't watch myself, this post will soon become nauseating.

I've always enjoyed good conversation. Conversation that arises from deep, feeling places of the heart and rich, thoughtful places of the mind. Conversations that let me hear the sound bytes of your soul because I've stopped to listen and because you've stopped to speak.

What could be more gratifying or more indulgent, especially in contrast to the cacophony of mindless drivel and self-serving prattle that seem to characterize our daily communication or is that connectivity? Or information exchange?  Know what I mean?

I mean, we exchange repetitive sound bytes as proof, not just to others but perhaps more importantly to ourselves, that we're alive. We spout cliches because we're too lazy or too tired to speak extemporaneously or too tuned out to, or dismissive of, our feelings and thoughts to want to reflect them accurately. We use fifty words when two would say enough yet more.  And we remain silent while there are a dozen hurricanes raging inside our minds.

Forgive me if I sound critical. I don't mean to be. But I do observe the way we (myself and people generally) exchange information so much of the time and can therefore see, in contrast, the way we communicate and connect some of the time and marvel at and be grateful for the latter.  Which is where I think I started this post.

To all those who've stopped to speak with me, thank you. Please don't stop stoppng! And here's to you:

Image from here

 Care to visit the Amazon book jungle?

    

   

Blog posts and comments - Why bother?

Being new to this blogging thing and all, I've been in for a few surprises, one of which I'm going to mention here.

I've been visiting other blogs and when I've felt inclined to leave a comment, I've left one.  My comments are almost never one-liners, unless a post was so stupendously brilliant, I was left speechless, or wordless, I should say, and so far, that hasn't happened.  I'm not ruling out the possibility.  In fact, I eagerly await the post that shall floor me thus.  It would be a riveting experience, I'm sure of it.

But, to come back to where I was going, I've been leaving comments, all of them thoughtful and polite.  It's a shame I didn't keep a copy of my comments or I'd include them here.  I will in the future (keep a copy, I mean).

Anyway, of the 5 comments that I left, here's what happened (checking back 2-3 days later):

Comment 1 - No response

Commnet 2 - The owner of the blog changed my name from Thought Bubble to Peter, saying he doesn't like people using keyphrases in their name (why not,  not that using a key phrase was my intention to start with?) but because he liked my comment, he was allowing it to appear (now, wasn't that kind of him).

He did invite me to provide another name though but I really can't be bothered. I mean, I certainly wouldn't go around changing someone's name and then gratuitously suggest they submit another name for my approval if they didn't like the one I'd given them.

Besides, if he'd cared to visit my blog, he'd have gathered I'm of the other gender. 

Comment 3 - No response

Comment 4 - I got an email notification of another comment following mine (yes, by this time I'd discovered I could get email notifications of follow-up comments) but when I went to check back on all the comments, mine had mysteriously disappeared. (A glitch or a deliberate deletion, I wonder?)

Comment 5 - 'Thanks Thought Bubble.  Welcome aboard' (That's it?  I gave you something to think about and respond to in my comment.  Weren't you interested in engaging in a discussion or did you think that your post had said everything that could be said on the topic? )

You know, I thought the purpose of comments was to engage in a discussion which the post had set up.  I mean, I really think that a post is a stimulus, a trigger, a STARTING POINT, a doorway, a window, a platform for the altogether more fulfilling and educative business of DISCUSSION.

I don't see a post as the completion of it's author's thinking on any subject but as the beginning of her/his thinking, or at least, some point along the way of their thinking.  As such, it INVITES DISCUSSION not just PASSIVE AGREEMENT or INANE PRAISE.

Perhaps I'm visiting the wrong blogs.  (If you happen to be reading this, please point me to blogs that you think might be of interest to me or simply tell me what blogs you love visiting).

Don't get me wrong.  Praise a post or a blogger if you wish.  But please do more.  Please think and add your thoughts, no matter how weak or incomplete they may be. I'm sure any decent blogger and any decent commenter would appreciate the fact that you've taken the time and made the effort to engage in a discussion.  I know I would!

OK, I realize that not everybody will want to leave a comment (they're called 'lurkers', I've read somewhere) and many are only able to write one liners - perhaps a self-imposed limitation as they go on their frenzied blog hopping (in which case, I wonder, why bother?) .  But that is better than nothing, I suppose. 

Besides, I'm done with my rant now. I'm smiling again.  See:

Image from zazzle.com