The Simple Life

I’m new to this blogging stuff, so I’m still fumbling in the dark when it comes to figuring out all the dandy doodads available through my excellent blogging host WordPress.  But I did manage to pick up on how to add tags to my posts.  (I am amazed at the resourcefulness people show in working as many as fifteen tags into their posts!)

When I wrote this post, ”Being There,”  I decided to make one of my tags The Simple Life.  After I posted, I clicked on the tag The Simple Life listed with my post to read what others had written on the subject.  I expected musings on nature, perhaps spiritual observations, or maybe, like me, simple people writing about their simple lives.  Imagine my bewilderment when I started scrolling down the page:  Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Paris, Nicole, pregnant, DUI, eating disorder….

Say what?

It turns out there is a reality show called The Simple Life that stars Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.  Now I have a feeling that this is pretty common knowledge.  But in case you’re saying, “Good grief, blueridgebluecollarwoman, have you been living in a cave?!!”  Well, no, but I do live in a mountain valley, which gives us terrible television reception.  There was a little satellite dish here when we came, but we never had it connected.  So we’re a little out of the loop when it comes to modern pop culture.  Before our teenagers went to college, they kept us just enough in the loop to be able to not look like total idiots at social gatherings.  But now that they’re gone, we’re slipping, I think, into some sort of time warp that renders us socially inept when conversations turn to TV and celebrities.

So I Googled The Simple Life.  It seems that the idea of the show is to put Paris and Nicole into situations far out of their comfort zone, which, it seems, would be almost any situation in the real world, since their world as rich, socialite party girls must be a bit small and limited.  It’s interesting to note that the description of the show on the Internet Movie Database included this line:

Plot Keywords:

Superficial / Superficiality / Stupidity 
 
I’m thinking that these keywords might be significant.  Now since I’ve never seen the show, I can’t comment on its quality.  But it seems unlikely that someone like me whose favorite TV show of all time is The Andy Griffith Show would be a fan.  I’m pretty sure I’d take Thelma Lou over Paris any day.  There is some portent, I suppose, in the fact that I tried to tag a post about nature and spirituality with The Simple Life, only to find the phrase hijacked by two bleached blonde playgirls.  But I don’t want to think about it right now.

I quickly changed my tag to Living Simply, and soon after, my post disappeared from the Simple Life page.  But I do enjoy imagining someone clicking on my post, hoping to see the latest pictures of Paris and Nicole, but being greeted instead with the terrible beauty of a flower spider, as she devours the unfortunate honeybee who wandered, unsuspecting, into her wretched grasp.

A small, wobbly step into the blogosphere

Hi there.  If you’re reading this, that means that, against all odds (with all the other gazillion blogs you could have clicked on), you have clicked through to my humble little corner of the blogosphere.  Thank you.  I am most grateful.

Though I have been reading other folk’s blogs for a couple of years now, I’ve resisted the thought of having my own.  While I enjoyed reading about the minutia of the lives of people all over the world, I somehow couldn’t imagine that they’d be interested in mine.  I lead a quiet life here in the heart of Appalachia.  My idea of a big time is sitting on my porch watching fireflies (there are a gracious plenty here) or walking in autumn through the old abandoned apple orchard above our house and gathering those wormy, wizened apples that, though blemished, make very tasty apple bread. 

Really, though, what kept me, up to now, from starting my own blog was fear.  Just plain fear.  So many of the bloggers I read sound like professional writers.  Their ruminations on life are perfectly formed essays, whereas mine might sound more like something I wrote for my seventh grade English class.  And one thing I have noticed is that most bloggers seem to be middle and upper-middle class, college-educated people.  I am not.  I graduated high school and have worked as a library assistant, a secretary, and a janitor.  My husband is a carpenter.  We both love books and learning, but neither of us graduated from college.  It is rather intimidating to put your writing out there for all to see when the most advanced training you’ve had was how to write a ten-page term paper for your final twelfth-grade English project.  
 
Nevertheless, I want more than anything to be a writer.  Someday, I hope to take a college class in writing, but for now, I’ll make this blog my training ground.  Who knows, maybe my writing will get better.  Maybe someone will read my words and have suggestions for making them better.  Maybe I’ll gain confidence   Maybe I’ll make a friend.  I’ve already been fortunate enough to find kinship with one fellow reader and writer through just reading blogs.  (Hi, Wesley!)
 
Or maybe I’ll simply have a sense of accomplishment from overcoming my fear, from stepping out of my comfort zone, and from taking that one tentative, wobbly step towards the day when I feel like I can call myself a writer. 
 
So, if you’re still reading, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I sure hope you keep reading.  I’ll do my best not to disappoint you.