What’s this?
A new subscription to my blog? And from a stranger? Hurray!
I knew I was doing something right. If I just kept at it, it was only a matter of time until I started growing my audience. Next stop? Not fame and fortune, exactly, but maybe fame: Isabel, Geriatric Blogger.
What a warm validation of what I do. Of who I am, really.
I am inspired to keep going.
What’s this?
It’s not a new subscription, but a new unsubscription? Noooo!
What have I done wrong? Could I have offended? Is my content too varied? My writing too dull? My photographs too amateurish? My posts too frequent? Too infrequent? Too short? Too long?
What a harsh repudiation of what I do. Of who I am, really.
Is there any point in going on?
What’s next?
In these dark nights of the soul, I’m grateful that I studied some philosophy in school. I turn there now for perspective, insight, reassurance: whatever’s on offer, really. And so it is that I find a new philosophy of my own by adapting and merging the words of two noted philosophers.
I write and take pictures,
therefore
I yam what I yam.
Hmm. Not a word about subscriptions, new or un.
Me too. My worst unsubscription was a fellow tour-taker the day after I published the first instalment of the Vietnam trip. Cruel!
Judith – Oh, dear. Not what they expected, I guess. There’s something to be said for the Facebook approach: Report the new friendings, let the unfriendings pass without comment.
Isabel
I know what you mean. Comings are always more pleasant than goings.
Except for…well, has one of my first cousins happened to sign on with you? He quit me some while back. Distraught I was too. At least for about three minutes. I was amazed at how quickly I recovered.
Somebody…might have been Socrates or Plato, or maybe Descartes…said, “No matter what happens, get right back on that horse and ride!”
On second thought, it might not have been one the famous philosophers at all who said that – maybe it was Yogi Berra of “you think too much, just hit the ball” fame. In any event it works.
Tom
Tom – Yes, “Think Too Much” might sell more than a few t-shirts. As for your cousin, no one has signed up and acknowledged that relationship . . .
I know you have heard me tell this one before, but it has served me well (as it were) since the day I saw it.
These words were written, in large 2-foot high capital letters, on a wall of a parking lot behind one of Las Vegas’ casinos: O WELL.
Barbara – Yup, that about captures it.
One spring morning, Rene Descartes was strolling down a street in Paris. A local tavern owner recognized him, and asked him if he would like to taste a new wine being served for the first time.
“I think not,” said Descartes, and disappeared.
Ian – Hahaha. And yet it seems so out of character for Descartes; he of “I drink,therefore I am” from Monty Python’s “The Philosophers Song.”
Good one, Ian.
Tom
Ian
Would there be any doubt about that?
Tom
Tom – One of the best (and worst?) things about the internet is that it lets people with niche interests (and senses of humour) know that they’re not alone . . .
Well, Isabel, Descartes believed he came up with a statement about which there could be no doubt: Cogito Ergo Sum, or I think therefore I am. However, would “I think not, therefore I am not” also qualify as a statement about which there can be no doubt?
Great fun, regardless.
Tom
Tom – I might have learned more philosophy with profs with a sense of humour . . .
That being the case, read “Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes.” It’s a fun read, and well done.
Tom