While breakfasting with a fellow blogger yesterday somewhere in L.A., she mentioned something that intrigued me and kept me pondering for the rest of the day. This should come as no surprise, as she is an academic and spends the majority of her time throughout the day thinking and reading and writing, whereas I spend most of my day driving around with wine, talking about wine and pouring wine.
Anyways.
In paraphrase, what she suggested is that by meeting someone through this blog world, you somehow get past that barrier you would hit when meeting this same person in… um… person. And maybe this isn’t so true for all blog cultures, but I certainly have found it to be true in the Ashtanga Blogosphere. As much as we try to be open minded in our daily lives, there often are certain traits we look for in a person before approaching them or befriending them. Commonalities or perceptions… maybe even a certain manner of dress… and these somehow can get stripped away in the course of a blogger-to-blogger relationship.
This is not to say that I wouldn’t befriend Owl without knowing her through the blog. But there are other relationships created through the blog with persons that I would probably be intimidated by in some fashion if we met in another context.
Is this only because we realize that this other person who we might not ordinarily be friends with has this one thing in common with us? We can be friends and interact on a deeper level because we both/all share this incredibly intense daily yoga practice? Or is it that, with the blog, and without the initial first impressions of a face-to-face meeting, we have the opportunity to delve deeper into each person’s character? And in this process, we find what we should have known all along…
In so many ways, we are all the same. We have so much in common, even beyond the ashtanga yoga practice. And the ways in which we differ are often much less important.
Whoa. I think practicing next to Owl made me a deeper person.
Uh oh!
You left me so charmed and happy. Thanks for walking in to my life in a new way yesterday.
(Next time I blog, will say a bit more…)
Nice thought 🙂
I think we all have two things in common, not just the yoga, but that we like to blog.
It takes a certain type of person to decide to journal their life, be it about their practice, a hobby or interest in a certain subject, or whatever. We have already taken down some walls and put ourselves out there. We may say we blog for ourselves, but there must also be that urge to be public, to know someone out there might be reading, otherwise we could just keep a traditional diary. That openness must come hand in hand with wanting to strike up a relationship, even an anonymous one, with another person.
Have a Happy Easter!
What a interesting, thought-provoking post!
I agree with Owl – I have an entire circle of close friends who I’ve met through blogging and even though we come from different backgrounds, professions, interests, etc. our love of online writing provides that ‘keystone interest’ that makes it easier to transcend the barrier from ‘stranger’ to ‘friend’.
The best part about this is I’ve learned so many new things and widened my ‘world view’ in surprising and wonderful ways. My blogger friends are scientists, welfare moms, millionaires, geeks, authors…and so on. These are all people I would have never connected with otherwise, and each one of them has coloured my life in a different way.
I think Ashtanga yoga is also a ‘keystone interest’ and, once again, I find myself connecting with amazing people, both online and in person. I love the way technology facilitates and enhances human connection.
Happy Moon Day & Good Friday 🙂
how fun you guys got to practice together!
are you saying i’m intimidating? cool!