This is one of my photos from London, and I’ve been considering different ways to continue blogging about those two trips.
See, for those who haven’t been following at home, I went to London to see Robert Godden and hang out with my friends Nigel (this blog’s London correspondent) and @elaine4queeen this autumn, and then a short time later my mother was going to be in the UK, so I went back again.
I could’ve simply flown to Manchester, where she was going to arrive, but the flights were prohibitively expensive, so I flew back to London, had some meetings with people in the tea business, and spent some more time with the above-mentioned friends. Additionally, I met @vsopfables at Heathrow on my way out of town, and she and I agreed we’d have to spend a bit longer together next time. It was simply too short a visit.
So, why have I included this photo? What’s my morsel of wisdom I’d like to pass onto you today?
It’s quite simple actually.
Most people look at this, or other blogs, or twitter or social media in general as one big swirl of narcissism. Although I believe there’s a great deal of that going on in the places I’ve listed, I’d be willing to argue that it’s not all we’re about.
My message in this blogpost is really one of the bigger truths that I’ve happened upon. One of those things I’ve figured out during my brief time on this earth. It’s so simple and so obvious that the more cynical of you will likely say, ‘Was that really necessary? Did you have to make such a production of this? You’re simply proving that you’re the narcissist we’ve always taken you for.‘
Well, I’ve got two things to say to that. One is: some people like my photos and whimsical posts and some prefer when I wax philosophic. Some like both, but not many. Quite a few of you have expressed delight when I lay off on the text and stay with the images that make you laugh. Others could do without the filler, and respond positively to my more serious attempts.
The blogposts that take a few days of pondering and writing and rewriting…those seem to make some sort of difference. At least if I’m to believe the comments I get here and the conversations I have with people after I’ve written them. No matter how lacadasical I sometimes might appear, I take this blogging thing quite seriously.
Why?
Years ago someone said to me, ‘If you’re a writer, you need to be writing. You can’t wait for that gig to come to you…you need to keep your writing skills honed and you can use your blog to do so.‘
I’d toyed with several blogs, none of which I’ll bother mentioning by name, but they had no direction. They were self-indulgent to the extreme. They had no interest to anyone but me.
Then I tried my hand at teablogging, which I still do inadvertently, but I found myself talking about anything but tea. It was great fun to weave tea into these other topics, but at some point it became essential that I find another outlet for my thoughts.
Enter the Dachshund Blog, which you’re now reading, and all the whimsy that’s fit to print. It was designated as the Dachshund Blog by our good friend Lisa Galaviz over at The Best Self-Help T-Shirt Catalogue Ever in the early days of this endeavour back in the Year of Our Lord 2011, and it took me FOREVAH to stop posting photos of Dachshunds and stories about Dachshunds. I did it eventually, but it was really difficult.
After that, I moved on to real topics that needed to be discussed. Things like poop in postboxes in you’ve got stool and less serious topics like circumcision in Germany, which I covered in getting a baby’s consent is no easy matter.
Back to the photo above. What’s my nugget of thoughtfulness?
Do what you love.
That thing – that when you do it – time stands still. Or appears to.
For me it’s writing. Or playing music.
Or planning the overthrow of a certain Eastern European government that’s been rather anti-democratic lately, but I’ve probably already said too much about that.
If you know what that is for you, do it more often. With vim and vigour.
If you don’t know what that is yet, then find out. You’ll be glad you did. I promise.
I like all the blogging that comes from you. But you know that.
I’ve been very lucky in my life to have been able to do the things I love regularly. I’m quite sure they’ve kept me sane over the years, especially when I had to be doing things I didn’t love so much. Or, loathed, actually.
Keep whimsicaling, bon vivant. Or seriousing. Either way, keep writing.
Quite seriously, the older I get and the more friends I lose to the grim reaper, the more I realise that’s just the simple truth. But do keep blogging. Please, please, please. And enjoy the simple pleasures.
Yes! There are so many things swirling in my head right now that refuse to be organized into a intelligible comment. So I say, yes. And thank you for the reminder.
I don’t know if this comment will even get posted, when I tried to comment on your lsast blog, WordPress wouldn’t let me. Anyway, I like reading your blogs on whatever subject. As to doing the things I love, I have done a few of them and hope to do more though time is running out. My wish for you is that you find what you are looking for and along the way, love what you are doing, if that makes any sense.
Thanks for the comments. I’m not very good about responding to blog comments, but I always read them.
This post was a joy to write. That it hit home for some of you is icing on the cake.
Mmmm…cake.
Now I need to figure out what it is I love so I can start doing it. I could really use some vim. Vigour too. Can you have vim without the vigour?
You certainly may have plenty of vim without the vigour, but that’ll cost you extra.