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Saturday, August 15, 2020

Hardly Modern But Grateful To Be in Touch


Good morning! 


Confession: The Artist thinks I’m “modern” because I have a Facebook account for the bookstore and maintain this blog. You know better! I tell him that blogs are old-fashioned now and that if I were truly up-to-date I would be appealing to busy, nonstop scrollers and their short attention spans by tweeting, but what would I have to say to the twittering flock? As it is, I spend a certain amount of time online but basically continue to live life in the slow lane and have no desire to be pushed onto uncongenial platforms. As Popeye always said, I yam what I yam.

 

One might wonder why a book-reading, letter-writing dinosaur would bother publishing an online blog at all. Part of the answer is efficiency. It simply makes more sense to put my impressions of books read and trips taken and life observed on the web than to compose multiple individual e-mails and still leave out too many friends and regular customers. Because "Books in Northport" has been going since fall of 2007, I have some customers I’ve never met at all, people who order from me (instead of the behemoth) books I’ve written about on this very site.

 

Then there is that whole business of espressin’ myself. I have been a writer since that first story, in first grade, about a robin family in their nest and am myself largely via the written word.

 

Finally, habit. After almost 13 years, it would feel strange not to keep up my blog. It has become a natural part of my life.

 

Here, though, is something I realized only the other day. As far as how “natural” it can be called to throw these virtual messages-in-bottles out into the public ether, with no knowing where they may wash up, the truth for me right now that in the summer of 2020, with friendships constrained by 6-foot distance, bookstore encounters masked, hugs exchanged only within households, much of “normal” life is no longer [normal], but while personal visits and bookstore interactions are very different, exchanges not done face-to-face are unchanged, and I don't know about you, but I find some comfort in that. 

 

When my son and I converse by phone, our conversations are not constrained by concerns about distance. There are miles between us, but our voices are in the same space. Coronavirus hasn't changed that the way we talk to each other.

 

When I find a handwritten letter waiting in my post office box, reading it now is as pleasurable as it was one year or 10 years ago. I still have letters and postcards from 10 years ago, too! Like books, they can be revisited and enjoyed again and again, even after the writers have passed on. 



 

My daily texts with my sisters, sporadic e-mails with family and friends are as unconstrained as ever, too. I don't eschew all aspects of the technological world, by any means.

 

So while my blogging subject matter in 2020 has reflected and will continue to reflect this year’s unprecedented concerns (and the virus is far from the only one), the forum itself remains the same, and my relationship with those of you who comment continues to be what it has always been, and I'm grateful for that. For me, it's a little island of normality in the constantly changing, often stormy sea of our life today.

 

Like most of you – and I don’t exclude possible saints, since we know that they too had their dark nights of the soul – I have my down times and occasionally share them here. On the other, brighter hand, when life feels like something to celebrate, I share that, too. "Books in Northport" has no destination: we’re all "traveling between the eternities,” and I find comfort not only in sharing the journey but also, in the year of coronavirus, in having an unconstrained avenue we can travel together. Hope you do, too. 



As always, thanks for reading.

8 comments:

Cheri Walton said...

I, for one, am glad you keep your blog. I thoroughly enjoy it and look forward to reading it. It brightens my day to see in my email that you have left a new post. I am also a diarist (is that a word?). I keep several journals for different reasons, but there's no doubt I am my own biggest fan. I suppose keeping a journal of any kind implies a certain self-centeredness, but I enjoy re-reading my own writings. It seems to me a way of seeing one's life as a whole, keeping in touch with one's self.

In any case, as one fan, I appreciate your blog and enjoy it immensely.

Angie said...

I just recently found your blog, and personally, I love that you blog. I've been a very hit-and-miss blogger over the years, but I LOVE blogs and have been so disappointed that so many bloggers have given them up. I am in a position now to pay more attention to my own blog, so I'm trying to get in the habit of posting---if not words, at least pictures. Thank you for continuing to blog. :D

P. J. Grath said...

Cheri and Angie, hello and thank you for commenting! Cheri, I also have been keeping a written journal but only since December 2019. It started out one thing and then became another -- a plague journal! And I admit that, like you, I also re-read old entries and posts. It's like looking through photo albums, a way of reactivating memories. Angie, I'm happy that you found my blog recently. I'm wondering how you found it. Were you searching for something that led you to Books in Northport? It's quite surprising the search words and phrases that have led some people to me. I follow Cheri's blog and now will check yours out, too. Again, thank you both!

Angie said...

You asked how I found your blog...it was actually through someone else's blog. They had a link to yours on their sidebar. :)

P. J. Grath said...

Ah, yes -- blogger connections! I miss the old feature called "next blog" that used to be at the top of the screen. Sometimes I would hit "next blog" over and over, seeing random blogs until one stopped me as one I wanted to read, but it was fun. Kind of like browsing in a bookstore, walking by some sections and shelves and then being called out by something unexpected and wonderful. Serendipity! More and more online experience now is managing us, directing us, and I miss the serendipity of the old browse.But I am glad you found me, Angie!

Angie said...

I'm a voracious reader...have been since I learned to read as a little girl. I would sneak books and a flashlight into bed with me at night so I could read--when I was supposed to be going to sleep because of school the next day. Mom always wondered why she had such a hard time getting me up the next morning since she put me to bed at a decent hour the night before. :D If left to my own devices, I would spend most all of my days reading.

I am also passionate about animals and nature. So there you have a bit of a disclosure of what I'm like. :D

I was especially delighted when I discovered your blog and that you have an actual bookstore!!! I may be emailing or calling you for books. :D

Angie said...

I'm a voracious reader...have been since I learned to read as a little girl. I would sneak books and a flashlight into bed with me at night so I could read--when I was supposed to be going to sleep because of school the next day. Mom always wondered why she had such a hard time getting me up the next morning since she put me to bed at a decent hour the night before. :D If left to my own devices, I would spend most all of my days reading.

I fell in love with blogs years ago when I discovered quilt blogs. Then, of course, one link of delight led to another link of delight, and I discovered gardening/flower blogs, nature blogs, and windows to all kinds of worlds. :)

I am also passionate about animals and nature. So there you have a bit of a disclosure of what I'm like. :D

I was especially delighted when I discovered your blog and that you have an actual bookstore!!! I may be emailing or calling you for books. :D

P. J. Grath said...

Flashlight under covers? Check!
Animals and nature? Check!
Quilting? Not me, but several of my good friends are quilters, and one even has a store right here in Northport! Here is her website: https://www.northportdolls.com/news.html. Also, if you put "Dolls and More" in the search bar on my blog, you'll find more than one post with photos of Sally's store. She has SO much more than dolls that we locals just call it "Sally's store."
You have brightened my day. Thanks!