The Solace of Familiar Spaces 05-Oct-2019

We’ll note in passing that the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Whither Canada?, aired on BBC TV on 05 October 1969.

To garner more views and traffic (and presumably likes), WordPress suggests one send forth “original, high-quality content” frequently and regularly. I don’t doubt the sincerity or efficacy of this advice. But I’m not writing fiction here, so frequently and regularly is at the mercy of when we can get on with our next adventure (which, fortunately, occurs more often now than when we “productive” 🙄 members of society).

And, for better or worse, all of our content is original (attempts to plagiarize large chunks of War and Peace [a gripper once you get past page 700] having failed miserably). As for high-quality, well, and although I do spell-check and seek to avoid the dangling of participles, quality is really for the reader to decide. I like to think some of this blog is at least interesting (OMG, cue the trite…). But as a card-carrying geek (I have degrees in Science!), I’ve learned to expect my interests and those of the outside world to rarely converge. Which fuels a vague, but persistent, urge to switch from a hiking blog to one about diet fads or beauty aids or alien conspiracies (two of which I could probably use and one of which may be true).

Whoa! Where are you going with this? Well, The LovedOne is now fully engulfed in clouds of cellulose from the library’s quarterly book sale. I helped with the set-up but the sale is her thing through the weekend. So temporarily adrift, I considered ways to distract myself. This is usually easily done with shiny objects or cat toys but I decided to go large and go for a hike. But to where? Pondering this lead to yet another hike in Jacksonville Forest Park.

Although it changes almost daily throughout the seasons, this small, local forest is now a familiar and comfortable place. A hike here often becomes more of a walking meditation. So, well loved, but old, ground. With WordPress’ advice about garnering traffic (see above) pinging around in my head, I ambled along meditating on whether yet another hike in this comfortable forest is worthy of a blog entry? I finally decided it was. If for no other reason than to remind myself that small, comfortable, repetitive things in one’s life deserve to be cherished too. It’s certainly a privilege to be allowed them. As for garnering more views and likes? Well, that’s not really the point of this blog, but who knows? Maybe, someday, whenever, we’ll have our viral moment (or finally pick a winning lotto ticket). Or maybe it’s finally time for YouTube and some dancing gerbils… 😉

And now moving on to something completely different…