Tribal Blogging

Sssshhh! Listen. Can you hear it? Off in the far, far distance. Around a fire they are gathered. The mommas have sarong-wrapped their babes onto their backs or nuzzled them at their breasts. The stories have begun. They are telling. And they are listening. Fast forward hundreds of years and our grannies and great grannies are rocking on the porches of their white clapboard houses. Their hands are fast at work. Snapping beans into a bowl, stitching colorful remnants into quilts. Swatting flies and wiping brows. Listen as they they reverently tell their secret stories. And then, come...Time travel into the now. Into the land of caffeine and laptops. They're hunched down, the glare of glowing screens coloring their faces neon. They are bloggers. And they are telling their stories on line.

About 1,400 of these new millenium storytellers gathered in The Windy City this weekend for the largest annual blogging conference: BlogHer. Across the country, women who could not attend for various reasons had pangs of blog envy. In the privacy of their desktop cubbies, while tykes tugged at their capris, they bemoaned into cyberspace the pluses and the minuses of not being there. But, Saturday night in Music City no crying was going on in a certain group of mostly Mom Blogger's beers. And that's because a couple of mom bloggers hosted their own meet up, so cleverly named: Margarit-Her. 

A friendly bunch of women, we (such as I) were/are not all "mommy bloggers." We blog about spirituality, today's church, Catholic homeschooling, going granola, Guatemalan adoption, fashion finds, living frugally yet beautifully and more. It is 2009. Someone else snaps our beans and makes our quilts. Although there's a return to simplicity and crafts and yet another subset of blogging baby wearers. And what we do have all in common is that we tell stories. Much like our primitive ancestors and our grannies. Only, we are typing them into electronic keyboards and clicking "send" and dispersing them into the blogosphere. Who'd of thunk? Criticize all this technology if you will. But in the end, it's still telling one's story. One mother. One human. To another. Connecting. Through story.

Blog on, baby. Blog on.

Comments

[Leisa A. Hammett]

Vikki, I don’t see it as a problem. I would not have noticed if you hadn’t of pointed it out: http://2littleirishboys.blogspot.com/2009/07/happy-feet.html In journalism, anything more than five words needs to be quoted. But there is even a change of words in the first three sentences. And, it was talking about different things. And we were writing independently of one another. I was also taught in communications that there is no such thing as an original idea. Thanks for visiting!

[Vikki O'Brien]

Ok-I am visiting again. And as I read your post guess I didn't notice that I wrote pretty much the same thing as your first lines in this post. Purely coincendal.....guess we have kinda the same thoughts when describing sounds. Please accept my apology--I didn't even realize the similarity when I wrote mine (july 28) until just now!
Hope you have a good weekend!
Vikki

[Leisa A. Hammett]

And here's the piece that MichelleSmiles, above, refers to: http://livelaughlove95.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/the-magic-of-potluck/

[Michelle Smiles]

Isn't it fun how despite our different voices and perspectives and experiences we come together over a (now) common appliance like a computer? Malia did a nice post about that topic today - likening it to a pot luck picnic.

[Jamie]

So glad you joined us and I'm looking forward to a redux this fall!

[Leisa A. Hammett]

Vikki, thanks for coming by, dear. Missed you, too. I must've seen you a Blissdom cause your pretty face (via your blog) sure looks familiar. Cheers!

[Leisa A. Hammett]

Amy, dahling, here's the deal. I perceive you, with your chic little shoes, haircut and skinny figure (skinny in a good way)to be blogging sophisticatedly AND also snapping beans, making cookies served on silver trays and stitching draperies and working outside the home full time and raising precious children.

[Vikki O'Brien]

I hate I missed meeting you all! I love that you guys get together and I can't wait to come next time!

[Amy @ Milk Breath & Margaritas]

Yes! It was so much fun - thanks for coming and for leaving comments on my blog. It was great to get to chat with you again.

(I love that first paragraph. I think it's ironic that the last scenario - the glow of the computer screen - is vastly less appealing sounding to me. I'd rather snap beans. But I do totally "get" that blogging relationships are very real -- we proved it (again) Saturday.)