I do my best thinking in the shower, and today was no exception. I got thinking about the strange duality brought on by a global network of computers and the ability to create a “virtual reputation” through websites, blogs and pod casts. Here I sit, messed hair, unshaven face typing my heart out and there you sit, reading it, sipping your coffee or getting in a little R&R when the boss isn’t looking. And I step back from the desk and take a shower and feel as though I’ve somehow achieved something–an imagined following that is moved by my words, unseen but always present in my mind.
I’m sure we all do it in some regard or another, whether its behind a screen or behind a desk. Often I think it’s what keeps us sane. Hoping that another shares the same thoughts and feelings, daring to think that someone else cares enough to read and sympathize. Sometimes I write just to “get it out of my system”, as if it were some kind of twenty-four hour bug that I just need to vomit up and rid myself of. But writing is an incurable madness, fueled still greater by the blog.
A bit pretentious even, no? The assumption that you care about what I say may even border on amusing if it were not so prevalent. But then, it’s all an irony, ironing these thoughts out and hanging them on the wire for the world to see. I’m like the man protesting about freedom of speech, writing an essay about the evils of ink with a flourish of my pen.
I suppose a virtual following is along the same lines of an anchorman’s following or athlete’s following. They still have to tuck their kids in at night, they still have to deal with inlaws, eating and irritable bowels. I’m afraid I’m starting to put myself on the same level as a sports or news hero–let me make it clear that my bowels are just fine.
And with that humbling admission, I’m going to take a shower.
