Monday, September 01, 2014

In Defiance of Thomas Wolfe


So – how do   you come back? Thomas Wolfe says you can’t. Maybe he’s right and you really can’t go home  again.  But what if maybe you can?  I think you can. I don’t know it  for sure, but in a fair world (yeah like that’s not an oxymoron) burned-out bloggers can and do  revitalize. Of course the  big question in revitalization is  what do you say about having been absent for almost a year. Should you adopt an attitude of insouciance as in, “Hi honey, I’m home!” ” Or is it better to serve up  an apology wrapped in angst and sprinkled liberally with mea culpas in the original Latin? I think I’ll skip both if you don’t mind.

It’s funny how I'm talking to “you”, because I’m pretty sure that “you” aren’t even here anymore. This is not the first time I lost my audience via silence. It’s actually the second, but who’s counting. Obviously, just me.  All I can say is I never made a conscious decision to stop writing the blog. I like to blame it on starting the new ephemera site – and that WAS a big piece of it -- but it doesn’t deserve the  whole  rap sheet  either. The real reason I stopped is that I was sick to death of listening to myself whine about the inevitable changes in the book business.  Of course now that I’m back  I know I’ll inevitably whine some more, and occasionally even rail, because I’m a whiner at heart and that’s what we do. One of those online quizzes even said as much  last week. The Yiddish word I most resemble is kvetch.  I knew it even before they told me, but I will try to temper it. Promise.

Okay then, now that that’s out of the way here’s what’s going on over here. I am surrounded as always by leaning towers of books of excellent to dubious distinction.  The ephemera site is almost at 1000 listed items, I’m still at the antiques mall with two booths,  and I’m also still volunteering for Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society (NOBS) which I love except for one enormous thing. Okay, here’s the whine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  I took on the job of NOBS secretary which proved immediately to be a huge mistake.  I have no talent for it, no time to do it, no interest in it, and am frustrated by its endless detail. Oh, how I hate details – those damn pesky little things humming around me like a swarm of gnats.

The  only really big news is I have a new grandson. Our  daughter Catie, who got married last June and moved to Kansas City, delivered little Cameron Joseph Han a week ago. He was three weeks early, but all is  well as he’d passed the danger mark  and weighed  in at an acceptable six and a half pounds. We’ll be going out there next week, so I probably should have waited to start this until I got back. But Eric is off to one of his many shows – really, not that much has changed! – so today seemed like the day to tie up loose ends.

Which brings me now  to the final big question -- can I henceforth be counted on to be a dependable blogger? I’d like to say yes – emphatically YES! -- but I better not, or the next time I fail It WILL require mea culpas in the original Latin – maybe even marinated.  And who in their right mind  wants THAT? So let’s leave it at this. I will try very hard to write at least once a week, share what I know, and admit what I don’t. I will try to be informative and maybe even amusing from time to time. And I will always give an honest account of what’s going on.

So what do you think – shall we give it another spin?

8 comments:

Saturday Evening Post said...

By all means, Tess. Write when you are driven to, don't when you aren't . No explanation is required.
Nice to have you back. I figured you had moved, without telling us undesirables. --SEP

tess said...

Are you kidding?! I greatly appreciate you all. I am so happy to see you here and I just had a Facebook comment from someone else. So now I really am talking to "you." How about that?!

Cheryl said...

Yippee! You're back to inspire me and perhaps it will be a mutual admiration blogging adventure. Our topics are completely different but blogging is blogging.

tess said...

Blogging is blogging -- that's for sure. The beauty of yours is the beautiful photography. Thanks for the note.Very nice to hear!

Anonymous said...

Well, see you added a new reader already!~Mary G.

Anonymous said...

Very nice to see you back. I checked back periodically (you were on my blog list) and had a nice surprise today after not checking for quite a while. I enjoy your musings immensely. Nancy

tess said...

Thank you! I think this coming back thing is going to be a process. It's great to see you!!! Amazing how you found me again.

tess said...

Thank you Mary G. You guys are so great to see.