Is This Interesting?
Thoughts/feelings that just might not matter:
I once read that John Lennon was the kind of guy who did what he said he was going to do. If he told you he’d write you a postcard, you could expect a postcard. [I suppose all those bed-ins allowed for generous correspondence time.] Alas, in this and so many other ways, I am no John Lennon.
I despise the cliché I’m about to use, but I just can’t stop my fingers from typing it. There are two kinds of people in the world (barf): Keep-in-Touchers and Out-of-Sight-Out-of-Minders. These two groups are quite different and very likely to hurt each others’ feelings. Out-of-Sight-Out-of-Minders make Keep-in-Touchers feel neglected and forgotten, and Keep-in-Touchers make Out-of-Sight-Out-of-Minders feel guilty and pressured.
Let’s call them KITs and OOSOOMs for the purpose of this BLOG (puke).
KITs are initiators and big-picture thinkers, capable of seeing beyond the bubble of their immediate lives into the past, future, far, and near. They appreciate the interconnectedness of the cosmos, and their life story stays beautifully intact through a series of letters, visits, and reunions. They may also be bored, boring, or salespeople.
OOSOOMs are present-minded and entrenched in the flow of their local community. They work hard, play hard, party hard, and sleep hard. Their social tapestry is ever-changing as new characters jump into frame and old standbys fade out of view. They also may be self-centered losers, hermits, or drug addicts with no long-term perspective.
Technology is firmly on the side of the KITs. With e-mail, text/instant messages, cell phones, MySpace, Twitter, etc., it is impossible to be an OOSOOM and keep KITs from finding out. Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide, no excuses.
So it is my shame/pleasure to confess that I am an Out-of-Sight-Out-of-Minder. I do not like this about myself, but I certainly haven’t taken steps to change in my thirty years of breathin’. Ask my family, my friends, my co-workers. I know the KITs among them think of me as some sort of demon who drinks ink, burns stationary stores, and drops phones in the toilet, laughing all the while, wearing my isolation like a smallpox-infected blanket.
I’m SORRY, ok? Jeez.
I didn’t turn myself into an insensitive lout; I was born an insensitive lout! I am an equal opportunity disappointer, and I can’t think of too many people in my past who keep in touch worse than me.
It doesn’t mean that I love people any less. It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t take a bullet for my elementary school buddies or that brief pen pal girlfriend or all those singer-songwriters from all those song circles. It doesn’t mean that I couldn’t sit across a table from any friend in my past and instantly reconnect over onion rings.
I’m just an OOSOOM. I have long-distance autism. More often than not, I find myself so boring that I can’t imagine what I’d put in a letter. Sure, I have this BLOG (ralph), but it’s mostly filled with fiction, jokes, and lists. You won’t find me going all Regis Philbin on you, describing the three gala events I attended last night.
It’d probably come out all rambly-pambly like this here post. But for the record:
Dear Mum,
Last night I ate a PBJ, fiddled around with web design, took a Claritin-D, and read Harry Potter.
Love,
Southpaw
Quotopia
Freshly-picked quotes from the ol’ reference collection:
For a totalitarian regime, the ideal citizen isn’t a chest-thumping Nazi, but rather the man for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (meaning the reality of the experience) and the distinction between true and false (meaning the standard way of thinking) doesn’t exist any more.
Hannah Arendt
Online Museum of the Week
Pimp Cups!:
Rhyme Thyme!
One clue whose answer consists of two rhyming words:
The tortoise beat the hare in baby-making! That is one…
Highlight here for answer: [fertile turtle]
Upcoming Show(s)
Where can I see Southpaw in the flesh?
Thursday, July 26th, 2007
8:00 PM
Matt the Electrician & Southpaw Jones
Cafe Mundi
1704 E. 5th St.
Austin, TX
512-236-8634
http://cafemundi.com
Thank you, come again!
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