Twilight

I finished reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer last night. Why Twilight? U2’s PopMart tour in 1997 included an outrageous stage set including a huge mirror-ball lemon. When asked “Why a lemon?” by reporters, The Edge replied, "Why not a lemon?" Why Twilight? Why not Twilight?

One of the reasons I read Twilight is to see why it is so compelling for so many people—particularly women kind of people. There is a strange energy about it. Some have talked about it in such addictive terms, like Diet Coke or European chocolate. Others, wanting to raise themselves above the common folk, look down their noses at it. Better to read Jane Austin or Emily Bronte.

Am I comparing Meyer to these seasoned standards of literature? No, not comparing or contrasting, I will leave that discussion for the academics. And such discussion rages on. There are Web sites and blogs galore that defend and critique, praise and put down the morality, the academic validity, and so forth. And then you add the Mormon spin to the whole business and it doesn’t take too many Googles on the Web to see that folks are pretty exercised about these tales.

But in the end, that’s what they are. They are tales. They are stories, and we all like to read or listen to a great story. And we need a good story to give our heads a rest from the reality of our own lives sometimes. I read Twilight to see what all the fuss is about. And now I get it. It is a compelling read, and in my view, a great story. Was it the Great American Novel? I wasn’t looking to read the Great American Novel. Did it take into consideration and treat well all the moral issues of the day? I don’t know.

Should we who are trying to be perfect by the weekend spend our time here, or much rather in the scriptures or an LDS historical novel where we at least get credit for studying Church History? I think it is possible to read Stephanie Meyer and still obtain the highest degree of the highest glory.

And actually I don’t wish to spend any more time analyzing it. There are thousands of sites doing just that. I would rather read than write about reading, so I shall quit writing and get started on New Moon, which I have already heard isn’t as good as the others, so I will start liking it from the first page.

Fresh Trapped Prairie Falcons

Fresh Trapped Praire Falcons from an old photo gallery.

Blogging From My Phone

Check it out! Blogging from my phone! Think of the possibilities. I
could blog during boring meetings, While I am lost in the mountains,
numb during piano recitals, in jail etc. Gotta love technology!
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Sent from Gmail for mobile mobile.google.com

What Is The Deal With Blogging?

The first time someone invited me to visit their blog, my reaction was "Why would I want to read what you have to say?" The approach had a familiar ring, "And if you invite three friends, and they invite three friends, we'll fill our garages full of crap we can never sell or ever use ourselves in an average lifetime."

And then I saw a few more blogs that reminded me of Christmas newsletters. The ones where the kids are fresh from perfectland dripping wet with self-esteem and the parents, in all modesty, are doing more that year than the rest of us schmoes could possibly do in a lifetime, bless their hearts.

And then my daughters, perfect darlings themselves, started blogging as did other family members and friends and suddenly it looks there is a movement going on here--like iPods, avocados, and going to the gym.

Suddenly, I'm late. Everyone has a date to the dance but me. But wait, "You there in the back room, sweeping. Is that you Cinderella?"

So here I am blogging. I have a picture so far; I have a bunch of words tossed about. But my question remains, "Why in the world would anybody want to read what I have to say?"

And maybe that's the trick. Nobody is actually reading blogs, it is just a weird conspiracy by devious English teachers trying to get people to write again. Or maybe it is a consortium of the people making digital cameras needing distribution.

Or maybe it's just fun to amuse ourselves and the twelve people we pay to come to our blogs. And that's enough. What better amusement can one be involved in? True there is a lot actually, but what the hey, if scribbling blog droppings can be as amusing as this first blog post, perhaps I will post more.

One of my self-proclaimed titles is "writer", so maybe this will just be a place where I do that, so I can say to people I am trying to impress, "Yeah I have a blog, several iPods, and just this morning I went to the gym.

I guess if real people start to read this stuff, beyond the other three personalities in my head, I hope they (you) don't expect much. I have this weird perfectionist thing going where if I think actual humans will be reading this I will spend forever making it grammatically correct and put commas, where they should go.

I also might be tempted to skim off part of the sarcasm and make sure I don't offend people--at least on purpose. So I guess I give myself licence to dump rough draft stuff here and maybe even some stuff that is a little more polished like the stuff I wrote on a train commuting into New York City many years ago, or my thoughts on the Vermont Maple Blueberry salad from Zupas.

Well that feels like enough for a first blog entry. Now how do you spell check this stuff?