"This is my letter to the world..." part 2

Emily Dickinson once wrote, "This is my letter to the world that never wrote to me...." A phrase I love and have, briefly, mentioned in the past. At the time, I brought it into the blogging realm mostly in displaying this excellent "opportunity to interact with the world... it can read your letter, and write back if it so chooses." ...If it so chooses. You can go on forever talking to yourself, imagining who may or may not be listening, reading, caring. These grand ideas of connectedness are mere potential - are they just as good if we don't use them? Is it perhaps that much worse that we have these abilities but aren't using them to their/our utmost abilities? Not to be ridiculously cynical, but when you see that elderly person meandering around the library and talking to him/herself, do you think "Hey, great, at least they're getting their ideas out there"?


Take, for instance, the 'drafts' folder. Frankly, it could be relatively embarrassing for me if anyone were to spend some serious time in my 'drafts' folders, which gradually fill over the year, most never to be looked at again, let alone sent. Some notes to self, some cathartic verbalizations, frustrations or musings, specifically addressed or general. Is it that much worse that it's been said or written, not just thought or felt, and there is every means of communication at hand, yet that gap isn't quite bridged? Because it could be verbalized in the click of a button?


That, you see, is my thing with blogs. All this talk - rightfully - about what great potential they have for encouraging and continuing dialog, etc, but that's just it, isn't it: potential. Class blogs in which students are jettisoned into reading and commenting, class forums that have been posed but never posted, or posted then never used. Blog sites that have been started but not continued (why not? too busy? feel that they have little worth saying, or no audience concerned or interested enough to listen?) or blogs that have been posted but never viewed, never pondered, never discussed. What's the worth of technology if it's there but not used? We complain about wasted time, wasted paper, setting printing limitations and compost and recycle to avoid what would otherwise be viewed as horrendous waste - what about the written word not consumed, not digested? (Too far with that metaphor? likely.) Emails never responded to, calls never returned, conversations never continued - but worse, conversations never had! Might as well be logging things away in our 'drafts' folders or not writing them out at all, no? Is there still some worth in blogs if there's no sign of their having been read, no dialog? 


Really, it comes down to the old standby - if a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears it, did it fall? Or take it to another level - if there are atrocities being committed in some corner of the world, rights being denied or violated, and no one notes them, what are their worth? What about the people involved? Or if someone misrepresents or disregards your identity, is it right to classify you as a "non-identity"?


So if there's great potential at our fingertips and it isn't being used, does it still matter? Or is it that much more of a shame because we're missing the opportunity; is the atrocity that much more atrocious because we didn't pay attention, or didn't care, or didn't take the initiative to do something about it, to start - and continue - the dialog?


Since the age of about 7 or 8, I sat at the front window, awaiting headlights as my father came to pick me up for a weekly visit. The frequency of these visits would gradually drop, ultimately relegating themselves to major holidays and birthdays. To this day, I dread waiting around for people, setting my schedule (or worse, hopes) to someone else, avoid forced dialog or waiting fruitlessly to hear from someone. It's discouraging. And it's something brought to mind by that "sheer hell of self-doubt" noted earlier. The sense of talking to a non-responsive void... how much good does it do us? From time to time, I have trouble convincing myself that "points for trying/putting yourself out there" is always all that applicable. Sure it's there, and there are pros and cons to everything, but that elderly fellow wandering around the library and mumbling to himself is a disconcerting and discomforting sight.