Blogging Like Grandpa

Some erudite advice for Tyro bloggers, in this anniversary post at Outer Life - a blog I read today for the first time, a gift of The Charlock's Shade, itself but recently discovered here, and whose rumpled festive wrappings still lie littered at my feet.

There things stood for a few more miserable months, my blog serving as a daily lesson in what not to do. Then grandpa hit the scene, taking over as a guest blogger for a few days and kicking me in the pants. His posts, coming straight from his gut (the lower intestine, to be precise), were written to please him, not you, were written with his voice, not yours, and contained a refreshingly honest and frank (albeit unintentional) admission of his limitations.

Grandpa, publish and be damned, blogging as it ought to be, joined by unseen unknown filaments of aether to his contemporary in another world, Tony Pierce, 111.

There is much to be learned. It is characteristic of americans, I have found, to be open, frank, to say their piece out loud and have done with it. This - like the ubiquitous handshake hallo - is shocking and fearful to those, like me, who have been bred for reserve and councils kept, in a world where strangers must not touch. No matter how open to assimilation we aliens may be, there are residues of our older cultures that persist beyond others, and that we fear to change. This is one. It must be dealt with stealthily.