{"id":4171,"date":"2009-04-20T06:37:25","date_gmt":"2009-04-20T10:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=4171"},"modified":"2017-04-19T06:00:43","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T10:00:43","slug":"notes-from-the-clearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/notes-from-the-clearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from the Clearing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"intrinsic-container intrinsic-container-16x9\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UWwOw72SeSs?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 90%; line-spacing: 1.25em;\"><em>[Above &#8220;homage to <\/em>Miller&#8217;s Crossing&#8221;<em> also represents a tip of the hat to Froog.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So it&#8217;s been a year now: 365 days, 309 published posts <em>[<strong>Editor&#8217;s note:<\/strong> 310, or have you forgotten that you wrote this one yesterday?]<\/em>, 1,295 comments (counting my own replies to comments, and occasional replies to those replies).<\/p>\n<p>When I started <em>Running After My Hat<\/em> &#8212; the blog, not the activity for which the blog is named &#8212; I didn&#8217;t know, really, what it would turn out to be. I had a few ideas for &#8220;practical&#8221; goals, (almost?) none of which materialized, and one idea for&#8230; well, call it a spiritual goal.<\/p>\n<p>I started my first blog in late 1999; it didn&#8217;t last long. (You can see a snapshot of it <a title=\"JES's first blog\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20010809175429\/www.flixml.org\/weblog\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>, courtesy of the Internet Archive&#8217;s <a title=\"The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine\" href=\"http:\/\/www.archive.org\/web\/web.php\" target=\"_blank\">Wayback Machine<\/a>.) Since then I&#8217;ve worked on maybe a half-dozen others, some as the only contributor and some as a co-blogger. Without exception, I think, they&#8217;ve all been single-topic blogs: about politics, writing, or technology; blogs I&#8217;ve been paid to develop for someone else&#8217;s purposes; even a blog &#8212; currently open to just my siblings and me &#8212; for recording family memories we want not to be lost to the next generation.<\/p>\n<p>Only <em>RAMH<\/em>, though, has worked out to be something like I really wanted to do. Like the creators of the <em>Seinfeld<\/em> TV show famously insisted about their product, <em>RAMH<\/em> is pretty much about nothing, at least nothing in particular, and so it&#8217;s turned out pretty much to my liking.<\/p>\n<p>One of my favorite Web watering holes is the here often-touted <a title=\"Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast\" href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast<\/em><\/a> site. (Oddly, or so I keep insisting, even though <em>7-Imp<\/em>&#8216;s nominal topic &#8212; children&#8217;s literature, and especially <em>illustrated<\/em> children&#8217;s literature &#8212; even though this is a topic I know little about, nor spend much time following otherwise, I&#8217;ve found myself really at home there.) Not incidentally, in their blogroll you&#8217;ll find a link to <em>RAMH<\/em>; if you hover your mouse over that link, you&#8217;ll see one of the nicest and most unexpected comments anyone has made about this blog:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>John E. Simpson shows us that &#8220;a man could, if he felt rightly in the matter, run after his hat with the manliest ardour and the most sacred joy.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As it happens, they got that embedded quote from <a title=\"About 'Running After My Hat'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\">a page<\/a> here at <em>RAMH<\/em>. I&#8217;d challenge the &#8220;manliest&#8221; and the &#8220;most sacred&#8221; seasonings in that clause, but will happily accept the <em>ardour<\/em> and <em>joy<\/em> side dishes. Throw in a bit of labour (especially of love) and the ridiculousness of pursuing one&#8217;s hat in the first place, and I&#8217;ll be satisfied indeed.<\/p>\n<p>To wrap up this look back, and in connection with the section of this post which follows, I&#8217;ll offer these five as among my favorite posts of <em>Running After My Hat<\/em>&#8216;s first year, for specific reasons best known to myself:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Earlier RAMH post: 'Where It Was'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/where-it-was\/\" target=\"_blank\">Where It Was<\/a> (from April, 2008): one of my first posts here<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Earlier RAMH post: 'About suffering, they were never wrong...'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/about-suffering-they-were-never-wrong\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;About suffering, they were never wrong&#8230;&#8221;<\/a> (July, 2008): in which I attempt something like art criticism<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Earlier RAMH post: 'The Boy, The Boy's Mother, The Two Trains'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/the-boy-the-boys-mother-the-two-trains\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Boy, The Boy&#8217;s Mother, The Two Trains<\/a> (September, 2008): fifty-some years crystallized into a vertiginous moment<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Earlier RAMH post: 'Squirrels in the Attic'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/squirrels-in-the-attic\/\" target=\"_blank\">Squirrels in the Attic<\/a> (October, 2008): in which I intersect with wildlife<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Earlier RAMH post: 'Paying Attention to Bits of Everyday Life'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/paying-attention-to-bits-of-everyday-life\/\" target=\"_blank\">Paying Attention to Bits of Everyday Life<\/a> (January, 2009): the convergence of real life and fiction<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Finally, thanks, as ever &#8212; for things understood, and for things neither she nor the rest of you may ever pick up on &#8212; to The Missus. She&#8217;s indulged me a lot as I&#8217;ve tried to grow and maintain <em>RAMH<\/em> this first year.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"noblesseoblige\"><\/a><span class=\"dropcap\">K<\/span>ate Lord Brown, of the singular <em>What Kate Did Next<\/em> blog, has graced <em>RAMH<\/em> <a title=\"What Kate Did Next: 'Noblesse Oblige'\" href=\"http:\/\/katelordbrown.blogspot.com\/2009\/04\/noblesse-oblige.html\" target=\"_blank\">by passing along<\/a> something called the Noblesse Oblige Award, the badge for which now appears here in the right sidebar. Here&#8217;s the award&#8217;s description:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>The recipient of this award is recognised for the following:<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>1) The Blogger manifests exemplary attitude, respecting the nuances that pervade different cultures and beliefs.<br \/>\n2) The Blog contents inspire; it strives to encourage and offers solutions.<br \/>\n3) There is a clear purpose at the Blog: one that fosters a better understanding on Social, Political, Economic, the Arts, Culture and Sciences and Beliefs.<br \/>\n4) The Blog is refreshing and creative.<br \/>\n5) The Blogger promotes friendship and positive thinking.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>The Blogger who receives this award will need to perform the following steps:<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>1) Create a Post with a mention and link to the person who presented the Noblesse Oblige Award.<br \/>\n2) Display the Award Conditions at the Post.<br \/>\n3) Write a short article about what the Blog has thus far achieved &#8212; preferably citing one or more older posts to support.<br \/>\n4) Present the Noblesse Oblige Award in concurrence with the Award conditions.<br \/>\n5) Display the Award at any location at the Blog.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As I mentioned in an addendum to a post <a title=\"Earlier RAMH post: 'There Is No Next-Time-Round'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/there-is-no-next-time-round\/\" target=\"_blank\">the other day<\/a>, after first learning about the award:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If you strip away some of the trappings of the aristocratic society in which the phrase was first used, the French phrase <em>noblesse oblige<\/em> means, roughly, a sense in someone in a place of privilege that s\/he has an obligation to those who don\u2019t have the same privilege. Which is as nice a description as I can imagine of what a blogger (or a writer in general) aspires to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>How could I not be flattered, then, to get such a thing from a blogger I&#8217;d offer it to myself, if given a chance?<\/p>\n<p>And yes, it&#8217;s understood that recipients of this Nobless Oblige Award will pass it along to deserving others. As far as I&#8217;m concerned, the following folks are qualified to display the badge regardless of whether they meet the formal criteria or not. (I&#8217;ve passed over others who have to my knowledge already gotten it.)<\/p>\n<p>My first nominees would be the same five I passed the last torch to, <a title=\"Earlier RAMH post: 'Shucks, Folks. I'm Speechless.'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/shucks-folks-im-speechless\/\" target=\"_blank\">a few months ago<\/a>. Besides the superiority of their scribbling, I value their blogs for demonstrating exactly the spirit of this current award.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, I&#8217;d like to mention these others whose sites, if you haven&#8217;t already stopped to visit, might be worth more than a few mere drive-bys:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"MoonRat: Editorial Ass\" href=\"http:\/\/editorialass.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">MoonRat<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Nathan Bransford\" href=\"http:\/\/nathanbransford.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nathan Bransford<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Janet Reid\" href=\"http:\/\/jetreidliterary.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Janet Reid<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"The Querulous Squirrel\" href=\"http:\/\/thequerulousquirrel.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Querulous Squirrel<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Dennis Cass Wants You to Be More Awesome\" href=\"http:\/\/denniscass.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dennis Cass<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Not a single one of them needs to do what they do when they set fingers to keyboard for a fresh blog post (often, or all too infrequently, as the case may be). But I&#8217;m confident that few who visit them regularly come away untouched by the experience. If that ain&#8217;t <em>noblesse oblige<\/em> in action, there ain&#8217;t no such thing as <em>noblesse oblige<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Above &#8220;homage to Miller&#8217;s Crossing&#8221; also represents a tip of the hat to Froog.] So it&#8217;s been a year now: 365 days, 309 published posts [Editor&#8217;s note: 310, or have you forgotten that you wrote this one yesterday?], 1,295 comments (counting my own replies to comments, and occasional replies to those replies). When I started [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16,38,12,53,37],"tags":[76,104,454,1157,1158,1159,1160,1161,1162,1163,1164],"class_list":{"0":"post-4171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-themissus","7":"category-backwards","8":"category-03_runningaftermyhat","9":"category-movies-media","10":"category-onlineworld","11":"tag-moonrat","12":"tag-nathan-bransford","13":"tag-dennis-cass","14":"tag-noblesse-oblige-award","15":"tag-anniversary","16":"tag-blogiversary","17":"tag-millers-crossing","18":"tag-favorite-posts","19":"tag-kate-lord-brown","20":"tag-janet-reid","21":"tag-querulous-squirrel","22":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-15h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4171"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19230,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4171\/revisions\/19230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}