“How Can You?”

In a social setting the other day, someone came up to me and introduced himself as a subscriber to this blog. I thanked him and said I hoped he liked it. I have learned that if a subscriber comes up to me, he either has a complaint about a post or a suggestion about how to make the site better. The latter often involves engagement, clicks, and conversion rates, which I am not very good at and so leave to others. This guy fell somewhere in between. He had a complaint and then a sort of suggestion, although neither one was very clear. It came out in a question.

He asked, “How can you?” “How can I what?” I replied. “How can you write what you write?” “You mean, how do I do that voodoo that I do so well?” I asked. He wasn’t quite sure what I meant but had a general sense and said “yes.” I wasn’t quite sure what he meant but had a similar sense and answered, “Well, I’ll tell you…”

Here’s the gist of it. And neither “it” nor its gist is a simple matter. In fact, they speak to the identity and reason for this blog, which has been published every Sunday morning for nearly ten years. That’s so long I probably ought to help with the cost of therapy for those readers who have been with me from the beginning, but that’s another post.

What he was getting at and I already sensed was how can I write about things like espresso machines, dry cleaning, locker rooms, broccoli, parakeets, mustaches, and tomatoes as a remedy for constant night peeing, just to mention a few recent posts, when the world is on fire and falling apart around us? Pardon the mixed metaphor. In other words, don’t I, as a blog publisher, have a responsibility to address the pressing issues of the times? Actually, constant peeing at night is a pressing issue, but that was covered already (see My Flomax).

It’s a good question. Why am I writing about these things when people are talking about nuclear war as casually as if they were choosing kitchen cabinets? I can think of two reasons, but before I mention them I ought to point out that there are plenty of political, religious, cultural, and historical posts on this site. See the drop-down menu “All Posts” to the right of this paragraph. If you check out those posts, you’ll see topics ranging from elections to DEI, postmodernism, and Marxism. Even Hillary of “I’m with her” fame makes an appearance or two. There’s something for just about everybody.

I have to confess to pulling punches, though, since my employers throughout most of this period were zealous in their promotion of a certain brand of social justice. I wasn’t and did not want to draw any unnecessary attention to myself. That’s not something I’m particularly proud of, although it let me live another day.

First, I decided to write mostly about personal, subjective, and internal things as opposed to public, objective, and external ones, because they are more in synch with my personality. They’re also more conducive to intellectual pursuits and prayer, which is to say they involve less talking. They’re about making art from everyday things.

Second, I find more poetry and humor in a subway seat or vending machine than in an Illinois traffic court judge determining who can or cannot run for president of the United States, which happened this week. Then again, maybe I should rethink that.

I have been told I should write for The New Yorker, but the editor stopped following me on LinkedIn a while ago. I don’t think we were politically simpatico. I was contacted once by The Huffington Post but never followed up. Why? I want to write whatever I feel like writing, not what somebody else tells me to write. That’s a problema in the blogosphere, where to succeed you have to define clearly who and what you are.

However, I prefer the freedom of writing about anything, which means I have to learn a little about a lot, including war and kitchen cabinets. Actually, I seem to remember when kitchen cabinets were part of war. Maybe I’ll write about that next time. I just hope my subscriber likes it. After all, he lives nearby, and odds are I’ll see him again.

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Image credits: feature by Mahdi Bafande; protest by Heather Mount; “planet” and Trump by Markus Spiske; collage by Bruno Figueiredo; IDF by Toa Heftiba; Ukraine by Ian Betley. NB: published with approval from the subscriber, who said he will relish the “anonymous fame.”

Want more? Go to Robert Brancatelli. The Brancatelli Blog is a member of The Free Media Alliance, which promotes “alternatives to software, culture, and hardware monopolies.” Happy Birthday to friend and fellow native New Yorker, Joseph Bradley.