The Overthinking Blogger

Esteemed correspondent Sognatrice, my favorite expatriate to Calabria, Italy, has most deservedly been awarded a Thinking Blogger Award!  Yay, Sognatrice!  Right on!

Surprisingly, Sognatrice has in turn deemed me deserving of the same honor.  When I think of all the other bloggers I read who have already received this award, I find I am so flattered I can barely get my head out the door to go shopping.  This is very good company to be in.

Here's the rub (there's always a rub).  People who choose to accept this honor in turn take on the following responsibilities:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

It's not items 2 and 3, above, which are so very rubbing.  Those are cake, of course.  It's that first one that has thrown me for a loop, such a loop I keep mixing more metaphors into this paragraph.  And you must understand that it's not because I can't think of five bloggers who deserve this award.  Oh, no.  I can think of five easily.  My problem is that I can think of a lot more than five.  See the list in my left sidebar entitled "Good Reads, Grownups Only."

So I thought this over for a couple of days.  I surfed and I thought, and I surfed some more, and then I thought some more.  (As a Thinking Blogger, I guess I would be prone to that kind of activity.)  And then I spent about six hours composing a beautiful list full of loving remarks, deep thoughts and sparkling witticisms, but I was doing a lot of other things at the same time, kept interrupting myself, didn't think about everything I was supposed to be thinking about at exactly the right time, and accordingly forgot to hit "save" every once in awhile.  So, you guessed it, I lost the whole post.  (Not always a Thinking Blogger, apparently.)

These people are brilliant anyway, and I will keep nominating them, over and over again if necessary, however often it takes until my attention span kicks in and directs my forefinger to the "save" button:

1.  Angry Black Bitch of, well, Angry Black Bitch:  Do not be deceived by the light, slangy voice.  This woman is a sharp, clear thinker who will make you think, too.  She writes engagingly and incisively about politics, and with deep love and honesty about her own life.  She will make you think even while she makes you laugh, and she may even inspire you (as she has me, a little bit anyway) to get up, get out, and actually do something on all these things we're thinking about together.  Thinking and doing.  That's what she's about.  Now she doesn't really like to tag other people with memes, so I don't know if she will accept the challenge that goes with this award, but I'm nominating her anyway because she surely deserves it, and I can't tell from her blog whether anyone else has nominated her yet.

2.  Charles Dawson of The Meanderings of a Politically Incorrect Crip:  This is a man who's doing nothing if not thinking.  Oh, okay, there's also the tending of the lesbian and other ducks, all those cats other people wanted to drown, and I'm not even sure how many chickens.  A retired nurse with arthritis farming in a frequently damp and muddy England, this is one busy guy.  This does not stop him from finding time to write down amusing and informative tales of his own adventures or devising all kinds of eloquent and erudite explorations of history, medicine, politics and culture that will make you wistful, make you laugh, and also potentially absorb whole days of your life while you think about them.  I can't believe no one has nominated him already, but again, a search of his blog reveals no mention of this award.  So here it is, Charles.  Goodness knows you've earned it.

3.  Goldfish of, naturally, Diary of a Goldfish:  Again, if I couldn't describe this woman as "thinking," I don't know how I'd describe her.  And, of course, she makes me think, too.  In the last year or so she's invited to me think with her about all sorts of things, about personal environmental responsibility, about a Muslim woman teaching in England who became a news story because she was asked to stop wearing a niqab while conducting classes and all that implied culturally and politically, about James Bond and all those crippled villains, and so many other things.  Goldfish is the organizer of Blogging Against Disablism Day (tomorrow) for which anyone so inclined is invited to contribute what?  Yes, more thoughts.  I am shocked again to be unable to find a mention of this award anywhere on her blog; I actually thought she had already received it.  Well, Goldfish honey, one way or another, now you have.

4.  Evan Genest of Two Dishes But To One Table:  This young man may be my very favorite biology teacher in New York City.  He doesn't always write about biology; he often paints beautiful word pictures, one singing little detail at a time, of his life in New York, the people around him, his students, family and friends, and adventures he goes on from time to time.  Sometimes he'll make you think with just a sentence-long post describing some quirky little thing that's making him think.  Sometimes he'll make you think about the beauty of something as surprising as the obituary page in the newspaper.  If I were one of his high school students, I would have such a crush on him.  Visit his blog and maybe you'll think about having one, too.

5.  The wonderful blogueras y blogueros of La Bloga:  This is an amazing blog about Latin culture in the United States.  Some of the book reviews have made me cry, and yes, also think very deeply about writing and art.  The interviews are diverse, inquisitive, and with such interesting, articulate, and insightful people.  But what on earth is a gringa like me living in a mostly honky suburb in New England doing reading a blog like this?  What could this possibly have to do with my life?  Well, why don't you go over there and find out?  Then come back here and tell me how right I was.  Of course, these people don't know me, don't even know that I lurk on their blog, and they might not be the kind to play meme-y games.  Still, this is a blog that makes me think.  Really makes me think.  And recognizing those is what this game is all about, right?

Whew!  Am I glad that's done.  But now I have to blather apologetically.  (I'm not just a Thinking Blogger, you see; I'm also a Relentlessly Blathering Blogger.)

Watching a prerecorded episode of the fun anime series Bleach Sunday morning, we saw our hero Ichigo, an accidental teenage soul reaper from the world of the living flash back during a battle with a badass, genuine soul reaper of the Soul Society to a training moment wherein his teacher told him (and I paraphrase), "Your sword speaks to me only with fear.  When you defend yourself, it's because you're afraid I'll kill you.  When you defend someone else, you're afraid you'll let them down.  When you attack, you're afraid you'll kill me."

This, apparently, is bad if you are or mean to be a warrior.  If you are a warrior, according to Ichigo's teacher, your sword must speak with Resolve.  Again, I must paraphrase:

"When you fight, don't let them cut you.  When you defend someone, don't let them die.  When you attack someone, kill them."

And this is why I am not a warrior.  This is why warrior imagery does not resonate with me, why, for example, no warrior metaphor will ever motivate me to clean my house (though I respect how that could be very helpful to people who are warriors at heart, just like I consistently though not exclusively tend to respect people with warrior spirits).

Me, I'm more of a farmer.  Or maybe a baker.  And though I have heard the expression "warrior-poet," I have never heard the expression "warrior-muffineer" or "warrior-cakemistress."  I think the word "muffinista" probably means something totally different.

Anyway, my point, and I do have one, is that I do not like to hurt people's feelings, and so I do not like to make decisions which, while they may result in my complimenting some terribly deserving people, might also result in my hurting other completely deserving people by virtue of not mentioning them.  Therefore, I tried to come up with a way of doing this that would be as fair as possible, and that would not require me to try and focus my Resolve at the expense of quite a number of bloggists I admire very much but who add up to way more than five.

Then I realized that I didn't really have a way to do that because there are so many great blogs and yet so many reasons not to consider various ones.  Some bloggists hate to play bloggy favorites games.  Many other bloggists I would be tempted to nominate are very busy in their real lives, some even going through huge, complicated real life messes right now who cannot possibly be expected to participate in something like this, even though their invitation to do so would be meant as a compliment.  And then there's the whole question of giving attention to people who already get lots of attention vs. giving it to some who don't get quite as much and should.

So, you know, I thought about this.  A lot.  Really a lot.  I think my hardest choice was #5, not because those guys don't deserve the recognition, but because it meant that once I made that choice I'd have to stop listing and extolling bloggists I especially love, at least for today, at least in this context.  And that, like realizing you've eaten as many as you should and thus pushing away from a plate full of warm brownies, was quite a challenge for me.

But I've said it before (in this very post) and I have to say it again.  These folks I've listed are great, and if you want more like them, go visit everyone listed in my left sidebar under "Good Reads, Grownups Only."  That list is full of sweet things, deep thinkers, high amusement, interesting lists, collaborations and individuations, including  the work of many bloggists who have already received and passed on the Thinking Blogger Award themselves, and all of which, award or no, will make you think, I guarantee.

Now I'm going to copy Sognatrice, because I like the idea of giving flowers with awards.  So here are some peach blossoms on a free tree I planted next to the road.  With it go my sincere thanks to everyone mentioned here, and more.

Anytime you have peach blossoms, even on a strictly ornamental tree, you have a promise of more good things to come.  Here's to that, for all of us.

Comments

[The Goldfish]

Sorry it has taken so long to thank you (I've uh, been busy with, um, something; can't recall exactly what, it's all a blur...), but thank you, it is a great honour.

I have in fact already received one and have a half-drafted post to the effect, but it is still ver much appreciated, particularly coming from you. :-)

[Sara]

Oh, Goldfish, I assure you, I am never offended by anything related to anything like this. Besides, I do remember hearing something about you being a little busy just now. ;)

Meanwhile, I am relieved to find out you were already nominated (as I eventually found out through the miracle of stats tracking that Angry Black Bitch had already been nominated, something I would have discovered sooner if I ever read the comments at her place, but that's another story, another story which demonstrates how I clearly am not a Thinking Blogger every minute of my bloggy day, even though I might still be blathering very strongly). You truly deserve this kind of recognition.

I look forward to seeing whom you nominate, whenever you get around to it. Cheers!

[two dishes]

Ah, you have excellent taste...Hey, weird, I was making a powerPoint for my lesson tomorrow. The kids need images and I was looking for -- i am not sure, I think a Polar Bear or a Smiley Face or something -- and I found your post. Yay, and back atcha. Gotta run right now to make a quiz. Back here soon!

[Sara]

That's funny. Yeah, this blog is all about polar bears and smiley faces. Well, it is, actually, kind of. I am sort of polar bearish myself, fat and white and often smiling, fond of cooler temperatures -- but not usually fierce, and certainly not to seals.

But I digress. I do love your blog, Evan, as it always makes me think -- and often makes me smile. So thanks again.