Colin Beale, Frank Wilson, Literary Blogging and Connection.
It took about forty years — enough time for me to experience and hence appreciate some of the challenges that my father had to face during his lifetime — but thankfully we were able to connect, during his later years, in a wonderfully profound way. Every moment of the last four or five times I visited him in his beloved Vancouver was filled with hurried, enthusiastic talk and most memorably, laughter. We loved many of the same things — found much in common funny. I’m reminded of one of my favourite W.H. Auden lines: "Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh."
In responding to Frank Wilson’s remarks about meeting me, Patrick Kurp sums up our kind of connection beautifully: "In the company of a friend I’m enlivened. I have a surfeit of thoughts and impressions because I know he will listen to them, appreciate them even in disagreement, and respond in kind. A friend encourages me to become more than myself. Blogging has given me friends, whom I trust and who offer reliably good company, I’m likely never to have otherwise known. We would have remained passengers on a train, departing from the same station, arriving at the same station, having never intersected, like parallel lines in a geometry text…"
Frank and I talked and laughed a lot. More than a lot. All the time!
This past week has been challenging on the blogging front, with hostile accusations, name calling and insults fired in my direction. Particularly irksome has been the sending of emails and comments to lit bloggers by unknown parties who have assumed my identity. I can’t believe that this criminal behavior is so easily practiced and yet apparently so difficult to stop.
Still, this mischief blows off like so much dust in comparison to the lasting pleasure experienced meeting and connecting with people of Frank’s caliber, and receiving attention and approbation from same. As a result, to quote Frank, "any lingering doubts I may have had about the value and the future of blogging have been completely dispelled."
May 26th, 2008 at 1:26 PM
[...] noreply@blogger.com (Gautam) wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIt took about forty years — enough time for me to experience and hence appreciate some of the challenges that my father had to face during his lifetime, but thankfully we were able to connect during his later years in a wonderfully … [...]