Image by xcode via FlickrI'm not sure if the following is insecure or plain wacky, but to find more post from the Insecure Writer's Support Group go to Alex J Cavanaugh's site for the complete list.
Right now I'm sitting in my chair at my desk in my home office. It's getting late in the evening and I'm about ready to go to bed. It's been raining all day. It's a little cold in the house. I feel like I'm wearing snow shoes--and by that I mean shoes that are made out of snow. Thank goodness I have socks on or my feet would be really cold.
However, what I just said is an illusion. Not a lie, because it was true. Right now I'm writing this post three weeks ago. At this moment in your time I have no idea what will have transpired between this particular point in my time in the past and the time when this will be posted to the internet or the time when you the reader will be reading it. This piece of writing is my illusion of communication to readers who are different now from the point in time when I was writing this. I too have changed in subtle ways, though it's possible my change could be drastic. I don't know since I cannot foresee the future. I am the writer writing to the reader of the future.
If this is not confusing enough, consider that this paragraph--the one you are now reading-- is being started ten hours after the previous two paragraphs were written and my feet are still cold and I'm still tired because I didn't get enough sleep. However you the reader will be reading this three weeks in the future and what was written over the course of several hours for me will be read in a matter of minutes for you, that is if I haven't totally confused you and made you throw up your hands in exasperation and stop reading.
My point is--if indeed there is any discernible point--my point is that we don't always know what we are really reading and when we write we don't always know who exactly will be reading it later and under what conditions and it what state of mind. Misunderstanding and misinterpretation is often easy. You may have meant something for humor and I may have taken it for upsetting. I may be writing from the left, but you may have a right-handed interpretation of life and see your point of view in what you are reading.
Clarity helps. Writing from ones own mind does not guarantee another mind will grasp what you're saying as they perceive it from their perspective. Unlike my post today that was written many days ago, our writing should avoid the embellishment of language if it abolishes ability of comprehension. Obfuscation can lead to alienation of the reader. But that is all beside my point if indeed I even had one.
The point is that I may be in Texas or I may be home or I be somewhere in between on this fourth day of this new year of 2012, and since this was written last year to be posted this year things may not be absolutely clear to me or you now or back then in a previous year that was only three weeks ago. Lack of planning you might say, but I might say it too or I might not. I've probably said all that I've needed to say.
This might be one of the craziest things I've written, but keep in mind that this is not me now as you read this, but the writer I was three weeks ago when I was writing this. And that's what can happen when you schedule posts ahead of time and start thinking about it too much.
Where are you now in this new year? Where are you going? Were you where you wanted to be this past year?
I'm not sure what this says about me or my state of mind, but this is one of the coolest blog posts I've ever read! *smiling*
ReplyDeleteI liked this silly post. It was time-machine-like with humor.
ReplyDeleteLee, this is one of the best posts. I'm sitting in my car, reading blogs and waiting on the person to open up the office. Is that specific enough? Lol
ReplyDeleteI'm where I need to be at the moment. It may not be where I'd like to be (at my future mansion office), but it's on the road to my future.
I too am where I need to be at this point in time.
ReplyDeleteI like when writers use their words to lead me somewhere and their are so smooth about it that I miss the real clues along the way and when I get there, I'm thinking how did I get here? I don't think they are deceiving me, but giving me what I want.
Cool post.
Yeah but, more importantly, are your feet still cold?
ReplyDeleteThat was really deep, Lee! You may have just disrupted the entire time-continuum in just one post.
ReplyDeleteI actually loved this post so much Lee, sorry to hear you're so cold though, that sounds kind of sucky. Interesting writing as per usual my friend, keep it up. You're definitely one of my inspirations around here on Blogger.
ReplyDeleteClever post Lee--it makes one think. I am pounding keys and watching the morning shadows.
ReplyDeleteLee, you kinda blew my mind -- and with the fringe, esoteric, mind-bending reading I typically do, that doesn't happen often.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this
'I feel like I'm wearing snow shoes--and by that I mean shoes that are made out of snow.'
made me smile.
Well, I think I'm here. But this is my here, as well as my now. Which will be a different now for you then. And my here is your there.
ReplyDeleteThese is only only thing I'm sure of...my feet are cold.
I think I understand what you were saying, I am writing this at 4 06pm on 04/01/2012 so whatever time you read this heavens knows whay may have transpired.
ReplyDeleteYvonne.
Your past is now present in my presence and I will ruminate on your rumblings in my immediate future .. so .. your past will influence my future. If you are still present in the universe, thank you. By the time you read this I will already be IN my future and your present words from the past will be in MY past. My head hurts. Is there a reset button?
ReplyDeleteHa! That's awesome :) Since I usually write posts at night and schedule them for early morning, while I'm still asleep, the time disparity definitely happens for me too. I think its fascinating that we can do it that way, although your right about possible miscommunication or misunderstanding.
ReplyDeleteSarah Allen
(my creative writing blog)
I follow what you are saying - I think.
ReplyDeleteThat's a cool way to look at things! I get what you mean.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I'm pretty happy with where I've been, am at and am going with my writing.
It's like writing a novel. By the time it's done, polished, and released, it no longer represents who you are but who you were.
ReplyDeleteA juggler and a time traveller. Hope you make it back to the future safe and sound.
ReplyDeleteThat was the most awesome thing I've ever read on Blogger!
ReplyDeleteI always post my posts (?) right after I write them...I'm not technically savvy enough to know how to schedule them to post at a later date..but I think I have the problem of people misunderstanding what I mean, some of the time. I am usually coming from the point of view that things are absolutley absurd and hysterically funny, but I'm not sure it always comes across that way..at any rate, I agree with Alex, I think the space-time continuim needs a couple of band-aids now! Fantastic!
So, where are you now? That was a very fun post. and quite interesting to think about. A friend of mine, when she becomes a follower of a blog, goes back to one of the blogger's earliest posts and leaves a comment, sort of from the future.
ReplyDeleteOK, kind of cool and yet somewhat strange at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI am way ahead of where I possibly could have imagined being, emotionally, over this past year. And yet, way behind in the place where I thought I might actually be living. So I am ahead and behind and the very same time!
After reading that...I think I need a drink =/
ReplyDeleteI always got confused when there were word puzzles like "I met a man from or going to St. Ives...." Clearly, I get confused easily.
ReplyDeleteAnswers: I am where I hoped to be, but not where I ultimately plan to be.
Happy N.Y.
Yep. It's sort of like looking at old photos and trying to remember who you were back then, what you were thinking as you smiled/scowled into the camera. Impossible, right? Yet our minds do lay down memories in odd ways and I'll bet one that would spring to mind clearly would be the feeling of those cold tooties.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the post and the time travel experience.
I never know where I am in time. I guess I will know when I get there.
ReplyDeleteI think I just experienced the past, present and future all in one post. Great way to find your blog - new follower :)
ReplyDeleteThis is like a stream of consciousnesses post- totally fun.
ReplyDeleteGosh, got home after my 12 hour drive from Las Cruces, NM to Los Angeles to find the most delightful, wonderful, and encouraging batch of comments I think I've ever received. I'm not going to try to respond to all 26 of these comments, but they are generating some interesting thoughts for me. I think I'm getting some more blog post ideas.
ReplyDeleteLee
Have you been watching a lot of Twilight Zone episodes lately? I kept expecting to see Rod Serling rise up! This was a very clever and futuristic post Lee! Julie
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the light hearted post today Lee. Kind of like watching Pulp Fiction where it skips around time wise.
ReplyDeleteIf I wasn't confused before, I am now. I think. Hope you find yourself - LOL!
ReplyDeleteThat made me smile.
ReplyDeleteBut we're always writing for someone to read in the future, it's just a matter of how far into the future they are.
Ha! Nice and bendy... I enjoyed thinking about all this. I usually post just the night before, so it is close in time, but it is always a little surreal to get a comment from a post I wrote ages ago, and occasionally I do.
ReplyDeleteThat was one thought provoking post. :) I loved it.
ReplyDeleteGreta questions:) It seems that questions are more important than answers in life...cest la vie:) Neat blog:)
ReplyDeleteIf my kids were reading this, they'd day, "He's creepy." LOL
ReplyDeleteBut they're not, and I am, and I think it's entertaining, and I don't have an answer to your question.
Taking it day by day.
Fun and safe travels to you.
Thanks for the additional comments. I've always enjoyed mind-bending, time-bending scenarios.
ReplyDeleteLee
I like it... it's like you're talking to us from a different time, maybe place...:) Nice.
ReplyDeleteHere, there, everywhere, and back again - fun post Lee!
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your three questions: I'm here now, but heading in a different direction, because I wasn't where I wanted to be last year. :)
I commented on this and it disappeared! Freaky.
ReplyDeleteWow. I see what you mean. This was all kinds of awesome, in a Donnie Darko kind of way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for these additional comments.
ReplyDeleteKelly--I'm sorry, but I never saw your original comment--not even in my notifications. I wish I had because you leave some pretty cool comments. Maybe it got lost in cyberspace and will come to me later in another time.
Matthew -- Loved Donnie Darko and don't mind being compared to that. I need to go back and watch that film again.
Lee
I'm not sure where I am right now. I'm quite confused actually. But where I am at just changed with each typed letter. :) Fun post, Arlee!
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely brilliant, a philosophy class of sorts. I'm going to be thinking about this for a long time.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I love your brain and my new favorite word might be: Obfuscation. It is Friday, January 27 at 10:31 am. I was having trouble waking up but this post just got all my brainwaves moving. Thanks Lee!
ReplyDeleteI hear Twilight Zone music...
ReplyDeleteAre the bullets real Lee? I felt like I took a trip into the Matrix! This reminds me of a time when I had a scheduled post, but because I was so busy I looked at it a month later. I was totally in a different time and place. I either didn't use the post or had to radically tweak it to match my mind of present day. Great stuff as usual! It's a little nippy this Sunday morning...
ReplyDeleteThat was excellent. Even to me reading 26 days after the post was posted and therefore about 47 since you actually wrote it. The written word is like a snapshot of who we were and what we thought at a specific point in time.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this fun? This could become a self-perpetuating post that will generate posts for months to come if it continues to receive comments and I continue to post posts about my comments on your comments.
ReplyDeleteThanks to all for all the fun.
Lee
I LOVE THIS. I thought I was the only one who could make a pretzel out of the space-time continuum and expect it to be there waiting for me to eat next time I went first through a worm hole. "What to me was mere moments was 25 years for Nero."
ReplyDeleteTo play along properly, I'm in my bed (on the rest) trying to stay ahead of my co-hosting emails/duties but decided I'd rather do some house calls to see what the rest of us crazed alphabet fans are up to. Nice little perk to find this mind-bending post instead. I love a good bit of mental gymnastics.
Tina @ Life is Good
Co-Host of the April 2012 Blogging from A to Z Challenge
Twitter: #atozchallenge
Tina-- That was a very nice compliment. Thank you! I feel bad for you, but you seem to be making the best of things. Take care.
ReplyDeleteLee