Discovering You’ve Fallen

Getting used to receiving news and other content online, not just from newspapers and magazines, involved learning about paywalls, response etiquette, what never to post and what always to avoid. Each of these took me some time to learn.  Recently I’d looked at the web page of the Los Angeles Times to learn what was happening in the city where I was born and grew up. I didn’t realize how often I’d done that until I got a notice early in June that I’d reached my monthly free quota. I’m welcome to continue if I pay for a subscription, or to wait until July for another quota.

Early in my relationship with Twitter I realized that the “trending” column for my location in Michigan had resulted in me wasting a lot of time. Returning to Taiwan, I reset my location to Okinawa. The “trends” showed up in Japanese and were easy to ignore. I also learned to unfollow some people. Now I mainly get cultural stuff from Taiwan and gentle humor. I’ve no doubt but that I’ve been unfollowed by people, and even by bots, that eschew blandness.  

When one gets one’s news and opinions from print sources that come in the mail or onto the doorstep, the reactions of other readers, printed as “letters to the editor” are potentially “better” because the writers have had more time to reflect before putting pen to paper. Some papers insist on printing the names and hometowns of those writers, not permitting “name withheld at writer’s request”. Editors choose among the many letters received to put into the limited space available on the page. This is not the way with online responses. People write “off the cuff” and hide behind avatars. I’ve learned that a good principle to follow when reading online editorials is “don’t read the comments.”

It’s been almost three months since I began these daily blog posts. Last Thursday I learned another principle. “Don’t read your old posts.”  I got into this thing believing that I could recycle stuff I’d written earlier in a less “preachy” or “churchy” manner. I soon discovered that almost everything in my earlier writing had been excessively churchy, and extremely preachy. It was essentially unredeemable for a secular audience. I switched to writing fresh.

man-falling-into-the-water

Last week I read some things I’d done during that transition. I hoped to be encouraged by how well they looked. What I found was sloppy thinking and bad writing. It only took 3 or 4 posts to discover that.  

I’m taking an art class online. Last week I learned about Agnes Miller, who is said to have destroyed more paintings than she sent to her dealer. She destroyed them because they didn’t live up to the idea she had seen when she conceived them. I may have to do an Agnes Miller on the blog posts. I should have done that before hitting “publish”.

David Alexander resides in Holland, MI after 39 years in Taiwan.

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