Since I just got married I've been posting about marriage, relationships, and the like lately and I've seen an interesting thing happen, people responded. I got comments, page views, and people telling me how much they liked my last post. It's always nice to hear feedback from others and find out people are actually paying attention. Still, part of me is actually a little disheartened by this surge of interest, because it carries an implication that people didn't read, or just plain didn't care about what I was writing before.
I wouldn't have predicted my newer writings would have eclipsed some of my others, because I find them more personal in scope. Curiosities of my personality, musings on relationships (of which there's already enough literature to fill several libraries of Alexandria, and what I bring surely cannot be that novel), and altogether introspection on how I feel during such a pivotal moment of my life. Maybe I should be honored and awed that others care about enough that they love my introspection. Maybe they feel they're getting to know me better through my writings, and that's what engages them so deeply, and again I should be cheerful to know people like getting to know me.
But perhaps that's also just it. Yes that personal side who loves his beautiful new wife and was eager to marry her is there. Yes, I have thoughts and feelings about romance and love like most everyone else. Yes, I am relate-able in those ways and those are all important to me. There are other things that are deeply meaningful to me, though. These are things that run from boring to meaningless to spurned to intimidating (and therefore avoided as much as possible) to much of the population in which I live.
Often what I write blog posts if not necessarily to change vernacular perspective at least to offer a different one. I find topics of science, mathematics, and technology - and especially the public's interaction with these - of immense importance. These are the ventures of human endeavor that will shape the future to which hurtling toward us faster and faster every day (ponder a moment on the technologies changing the way we communicate and relate to one another that have come to fruition in the last ten to twenty years) and the lijera (Spanish for lightness, but possibly carrying an extra connotation or two that made me want to use it in place of an English word here) with which people take these today is distressing to me.
I was once asked by an aunt something like, "What's it like to be as smart as you are?" My answer was a jocular but wistful, "Lonely," and then by way of explanation, "When I talk about something that I find fascinating and then see the eyes of whomever I'm speaking with glaze over what do I do? Pretend something important to me isn't or speak without regard to a fellow human being."
2 comments:
Devon, I only recently discovered your blog so I need to look at the pre-marriage posts. I'm certain there are things there that would be of interest to me. However, I have so enjoyed getting to know a bit more about your romantic, loving, introspective side as well. I wonder sometimes if the eyes glazing over isn't so much that people aren't interested in what you have to say as much as they have difficulty grasping it and are embarrassed at their own ignorance. I know that is how I feel sometimes when talking to you, but I have learned that if I just tell you that I'm not quite understanding what you are saying that you are more than willing to help me with that and you have never made me feel stupid. I look forward to more posts from you no matter what the subject knowing you will be patient with me if I am lacking in knowledge and ask a lot of questions.
Ah, it's good to hear I've never made you feel dumb. There's a lot of complexity and what I discussed here, much of which you've pointed out such as late adopters, difficulty understanding, and fear of appearing ignorant. I keep to my blog posts on the shorter side, so I didn't go into these details here.
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