Why @[insert name]?

I admit. I used it, too. It happened when I wrote on a Facebook Friend’s status. I wanted to address another person’s comment out of a string.

I’d seen others use, for example, “@John” or “@Jane,” and thought, well, I guess that’s the wave of the future.

So, not wishing to offend the Status Syntax Gods or appear Facebook illiterate, I smugly inserted @ and felt very hip.

It was like I dared others to read my comment directed only to whoever’s name followed @.

I mean, even I know enough that when I leave a comment, and later get notification that someone else has added their thoughts, if it begins with @, and my name does not follow, “Back off, Bub!”

It’s like in the “olden days,” steaming open someone’s personal mail and reading it. (It’s just much easier on Facebook because you don’t have to apply glue to reseal the envelop. No one is the wiser.)

Then I thought, what happened to that cute little curly thing we learned to use in elementary school? What’s it called? Oh, yeah, the comma.

So like if I wanted to let Jane know I was mainly addressing her comment, again in the “olden days,” I would have typed “Jane,”. How cute is that?

But, @you, you’re probably right. That little squiggle’s way too subtle. With overwhelming amounts of information bombarding us 24/7, @ is the most efficient way to get our attention. Clearly it filters through all the “stuff, ” so others need not waste time reading a comment directed solely AT JANE!

Of course, there’s always a downside to everything. @ has caused another victim of unemployment.

Hope the salutation comma finds other work soon…or, better yet, is rehired.

--Diana

Why Not Jump?

I love yoga. Love LOVE LOVE it! (did I mention I'm kinda crazy about it?)

Partially because every time I go to the mat, I discover something new... about the practice and myself. This week, it was forearm stand.

No, the picture isn't me...for lots of reasons! One being if it were, there would be a yoga friend, Sheri, holding my right leg so that I would not fall. (Thank you, Sheri, for giving me the courage!)

So here I am, nearing a birthday that I'm sure the numbers got reversed somehow (yeah, that's about right...36...that's how old I feel...most days!) and tackling something like nearly standing on my head. (actually that's one of ultimate yoga goals.)

Now, I'm finally getting to the point of all this. Lately I've been letting myself jump from one creative project to another. Allowing myself to jump from this activity to that activity. From one book to another (before reading "The End.")

WHY? It makes me feel alive. It keeps me MOVING! (Used to be I was afraid that if I did not stay on one thing until it was completed, I would never finish it. And that would show lack of committment and ownership.) But what I've learned instead is this: If there is something my heart aches to do (okay, let's assume it's within the "cause no harm" category!) in any given moment, and I deny it...that moment is dead.

May every moment we are priviledged to live, be alive.

Jump to it!

--Diana

Why a Pulitzer May Not Be The Real Prize

Listening to NPR recently, I heard a conversation with Studs Terkel. Agreed, you’d have heard news of the interview before now if it had been live. It was actually held a short time before his death in 2008.

For the better part of the discussion, Terkel’s signature voice maintained its gruffness and enthusiasm. Thinking back, it must have been the change in tone that caught my attention—I was after all listening and trying to be a conscientious driver! Though I can’t recall if his manner of speech shifted in response to a particular question, it seemed to result from a natural progression of his thoughts.

It also appeared he was hearing his thoughts for the first time along with everyone else.

Studs Terkel—author, actor, historian, broadcaster and Pulitzer Prize winner—questioned (forgive me for paraphrasing) if he’d been a success at the things that really mattered, had he done the right things and always been a good person.

The interviewer, apparently overcome with a self-imposed need to ease Terkel’s internal dilemma, quickly interrupted with reassurances that he was human.

The ninety-six year-old remained in that soft-spoken place, saying he’d used that excuse all this life.

Terkel sharing his inner-most thoughts at the end of his life, yet another reminder: If, on our deathbed, we have regrets, none will be that we’d spent more time on the job.

Why, I ask you, is it so hard for some of us to remember that?

Oh, right. We’re human. --Diana

www.DianaBlack.net

Why Art?

In the most troubling times, times of financial stress or illness, art may seem most unnecessary to our survival. Yet it is often the most essential to our wellbeing.

Muriel Barbery writes in The Elegance of the Hedgehog Chapter 11: "What does Art do for us? It gives shape to our emotions, makes them visible and, in so doing, places a seal of eternity on them..."

Can it be that it also places a seal of eternity on us? That if we feel an emotional connection to a work of art, and art is destined for eternity, then we are, by association, and in a sense, immortal.

Perhaps that is what we need most to be reminded of in those times of peril or uncertainty. That we share emotions with all other human beings ...the artist, other viewers of art past present and future, our friends, family and even enemies.

Art touches our soul, our very core. That part of us in no need of money or healing.

That part sealed for eternity.


--Diana
Pictured: Luncheon of the Boating Party by Renoir 1881

WHY Travel Was A Breeze!

Driving north on I185 the Sunday after Thanksgiving can be, well, hell. Not yesterday! Why? An Angel was watching over travelers! -- diana

Why I'd Pay $225,000...

If I had it, that is...
Virgin Galactic!

Why Women Are Fed Up

Now is the time for all good women to come to the aid of their...country!

We owe it to ourselves, our children and the suffragettes who fought (literally) for each woman's right to vote. Still, today, some progressive women are fed up and tend to turn inward their anger over the current state of the nation.

Women, however, must propel forward and take action at the polls this Tuesday, says Gloria Feldt in October 30th's The Daily Beast. To read her article "Why Women Are Fed Up, Click here!