« highly scientific experiments conducted while running | Main | buddhism and motherhood »
November 11, 2004
hi, mom! and an exciting announcement
A funny thing is happening: my mom's reading my blog. Now, I know this isn't unheard of. Derek's dad comments frequently over at EWM.
But my mom's not like a normal parent. (This, by the way, is not a comment on Derek's dad being normal or not normal. He seems like a cool guy at EWM.)
Mom's thrilled and fascinated by any and all things cerebral, and we tend toward long-distance phone calls that cover topics like audience responsibility, politics, theories of organized religion, institutional ideology.
She's fascinated by the blog, but she has some issues with it. Why do I write it? Why do I choose to write about the things I write about? Who am I writing to? How is this helping me be a better writer? Why don't I just keep a diary? [She's actually very good for me; she knows how to ask a question.]
She was particularly worked up about this post from yesterday, where I discussed things like snot, dogs, and running misery.
Her confusion and indignation about my blog slowly swirled into her incomprehension concerning my running.
Mom: Who wants to read about your snot? Why would you take the time to write an entire post on how much your legs hurt and how miserable running can be? Why do you do it?
Me: Uh. Why do I run? or why do I blog?
Mom: Both!?!
Me: Un. Um. I like to? I like it?
Mom: But you hate it! At least, you present it that way. You bitch about hurting and you USE the blog to bitch.
Me [hackles rising, as I always get defensive when she starts grilling me in this way]: Look. Running and blogging are about ME. I run because I like to, but I need something to motivate me to do it, like a goal. I run right now because Deb is training for the marathon, and I'm training with her, and we have something to look forward to; we have a responsibility to get ready, a responsibility in the future. Running is hard. Running hurts. It feels good when you're done, but it's harder than hell to get started. Blogging is the same in that it involves writing, something I both love and hate. I love it when I'm able to make connections, understand new ideas, come up with some funny dialogue, whatever. I hate it because it's hard. It's hard to get started and it's hard to sustain. It hurts when it doesn't work. The blog makes me repsonsible to other people--to readers who read and dialogue, who read and commiserate, who read and lurk, who read and learn, who read and think I'm a jerk, whatever. But it's not about snot, or about times or distances; it's about discipline. It's about some sort of external-to-me thing that tempers my slacker tendancy.
OK, so there's that. Hi, Mom. Welcome to my blog. Please feel free to comment!! (She didn't feel entitled to post comments!)
The Exciting Announcment:
After much badgering by our grad director, I have decided (tentatively) on my exam areas:
Major: Rhetoric and Technology (gag! I'd like to do something that is more REALLY what this exam will be, like "Computers and Rhetoric," but we'll wrangle with this later).
Minor: Activist Pedagogy/Service Learning
Minor: Feminist Research Methodologies
Now I begin stalking possible committee members. Beware SU faculty!
Posted by mryonker at November 11, 2004 01:26 PM
Comments
OK, it's my greatest fear that my mom will find my blog. No offense to your mom (hi! nice to see you), but oh, my God. Not that I've written anything scathing, but honestly, I think she'd find out that she really has no idea who I am.
Okay I'm reading that, and I sound a little insane. But I'm leaving it anyway.
Posted by: Laura at November 11, 2004 07:07 PM
Re: Exams: Oooh, baby--wanna share reading lists?
Posted by: Susan at November 11, 2004 07:46 PM
I won't even start here to talk about why blogging is so important. Just two observations: first, one of my students is very eager that I not read her blog. It's funny how public blogs are but how limited bloggers may want their audiences to be.
Second, it sounds, alas, like I'm safe from your committee dragnet. Oh, well: I'll be head cheerleader.
Posted by: senioritis at November 11, 2004 08:13 PM
I blog about stuff that is so antithetical to what my mom believes that she'd probably never "get" my blog. I blogged about snot on Tuesday but it was Garrett's snot. I like reading about other people's problems, their triumphs, their goals, their disasters, their worries, their happiness. I write for myself but I also write to be read and I read blogs for the same reason I read anything: the human connection.
Posted by: michelle at November 11, 2004 08:46 PM
yay! I can participate! The thing about most mothers is that they are easily offended. That would defeat the whole purpose of blogging as I see it. You can't offend me (altho I pretend sometimes), and the fun about participating is that I get to have even MORE dialog with my favorite person in all the world to talk to!!
Posted by: bjb(mom) at November 12, 2004 01:04 PM
i love you, mom!
Posted by: madeline at November 12, 2004 01:23 PM
I've been blogging for more than a year now, but my trip was the first time that my parents had cause to become aware of it. Here's a generational difference for you: I google people regularly, and if you google me, the blog comes up first or second--so I just assumed that eventually, they'd find it. I must admit it was weird to learn that my travelogue posts were being printed out (by my mom) for my grandparents. Mostly, I tried not to think about it....
Good to hear you've gotten the areas pinned down, Mad. Does this mean we need to schedule a sit-down?
cgb
Posted by: collin at November 12, 2004 01:48 PM
Ha! Re Dad and normalcy. We'd need more generous bandwidth to take it up. But he reads my blog and comments generously...
Posted by: Derek at November 12, 2004 03:54 PM
I love your mom!
Posted by: michelle at November 13, 2004 02:09 AM
Derek emailed me the link to your blog. Thanks for the compliments. Actually I consider myself to be abnormal. One doesn't have to be nuts to travel on this spaceship, but it sure as hell helps.
As a runner, I was hoping to compete in the Senior Olympics this summer. However, I over-did the speed training and suffered a stress injury in my right knee. But there will always be another time. When I reach the century mark in years, I will be after the 100 meter dash record for those who have lived a century. What more could one want from this life?
I love it! Runners and snot. No one understands the zen of snot better than runners.
It was really nice meeting you, even though it was through a blog.
Could it be, that a blog is a window to the soul?
Keep on truck'n.
Posted by: pops at November 14, 2004 08:05 PM