Family Confessions

Last night, the Dowbrigade had the pleasure of dining
with his two brothers, one of whom is a Vice President and the other
of whom is a Judge. Also present – little sister, now an animal breeder
on the Cape, and our dear old Mom, whose 75th birthday was the cause
of the reunion.

We ate at one of those ridiculous upscale Italian
joints in the heart of the historic North End, where gaudy, oversized
plates smeared with drips and drabs of salsas and sauces failed
to make up for the disguised but unmistakable mediocrity of the food
itself. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves, as it had been a good ten
years since we had all broken bread together, and who knows when the
next chance will be.

Among the talk of Supreme Court short lists, hot
stocks, Red Sox, cross-eyed Corgis and faded childhood squabbles
– painful memories, defanged by the intervening years – we were asked
about our midlife avocation of Blogging.

How much time does it take us, we were asked, to
keep the Dowbrigade News up and running.  Well, we explained,
both the nature and number of postings depends on what else is going
on, or not, in our so-called real life. When classes are in session,
and we are teaching a full load, or an overload, we are often lucky
to have an hour or so a day, usually late at night, after we have
finished grading papers, preparing labs and fixing web sites. This
barely suffices to surf a few of our favorite and fruitful fishing
grounds for a couple of odd or interesting items, add bizarre photos
representing, if possible, subtle visual puns, brief caustic
comments and clever alliterative titles. Presto! A Dowbrigade
posting.

But during the long inter-sessions (a month or two
between each of 3 semesters) it is another story altogether. Then,
we can spend half our waking hours on-line, posting morning, noon and
night. We do not regret spending the other half of our time cooking,
eating, playing tennis, making love, wandering around outside and
doing other things that the virtual world has yet to successfully duplicate.
This is when we can write long rants and track down stories, develop
pieces over time, and participate in the rapier repartee for which
the Blogosphere is so well known.

And then, there are those rare but treasured moments
in which we are truly engaged in Citizen Journalism, either by opportunistically
being in the right place at the right time, or by planning or invitation,
when we will become engrossed in one event or experience for days.

Of course, when the Dowbrigade takes his show on
the road, the nature of the blogging changes completely all over again.
Postings may become irregular, but long, composed on long flights or
bus rides on our trusty laptop, or late at night in anonymous hotel
rooms in remote cities and villages.

In short, we concluded, blogging has become an intrinsic
and inseparable facet of our existence, changing with our moods and
modes, but ever present, and evermore filtering how we see the world
and how we choose to let the world see us.

Meanwhile, we were mildly surprized that our brother
the Judge ever read the Blog.  We assume our Mom gives him the head’s
up, especially when we start weaving old family tales. Our Mom is the
only one in the family who is a regular reader, and we are quite OK with
that. In fact, we take some comfort that all of those with and for whom
we work seem completely unaware of our alternate life as a blogger, as
are, except for the Thursday Night crew, all of our friends and family.
Except Mom.

Happy Birthday Ma