Mind Boggling Blogging

Posted on 2006-Mar-16 at 10:20

Blogging has opened-up other worlds for me. I appreciate the interactive nature of this form—communicating with people on a more personal basis from worldwide. Blogging also helps keep me focused as a writer.  Some of the emotions experienced when blogging are quite raw, but others time IÂ’m practically rolling on the floor laughing at some of the posts. Here is one “raw” experience—hearing about a fellow bloggerÂ’s confrontation with her motherÂ’s impending death. Excerpts: 

IÂ’m leaving mom probably for the last time tomorrow morning at 6:11 a.m.   The reality hit me hard today.  SheÂ’s been sick for a very long time.  SheÂ’s such a trooper and a fighter that we have visited her deathÂ’s door beforeÂ….many times.  This time however feels like itÂ’s the final curtain for my mother.  I pray every night for her to die in her sleep.  SheÂ’s tired of gasping for her breath, sheÂ’s tired of spending her time every two hours on a breathing machine, taking her many pills, and now not able to walk at all due to a broken hip.  Â…Â…Â….  I feel torn; she would never leave me if I were sickÂ….but, I have to go.  I love you, Mom!  

My response:

Oh, that is so hard to hear. I know what you’re going through. My beloved maternal grandmother and I were very close. She ended-up in a nursing home, begging me to take her home to live with me. She even asked if she could live in our daughter’s clubhouse in the backyard. She was desperate to get out of her predicament. She’d self-referred to the nursing home, knowing she couldn’t live alone anymore with the danger of fracturing her hips again. I took my then young sons with me to visit grandma. She and I knew it would be the last visit between us. She told me to go to her mobile home and take some things she’d saved for me. She said if I didn’t, her former caretaker would take it all (she’d already taken some beautiful old bamboo furniture the family admired through the years, amongst many other things). Not long after our visit, she ended-up in a psychiatric hospital because she refused physical therapy and who-knows-what-else. My mother didn’t tell me she was in such a facility. I found out about it after grandma’s death. It still hits me hard that I couldn’t be there for her at her most fragile time in life. I found out at her funeral (I wrote her eulogy) that my mother hadn’t written grandma’s legal name on her birth certificate. She went by “Donna,” but her legal name was “Madonna.”

I learn so much when blogging. For instance, after reading one writerÂ’s experience with armadillos and skunks, I decided to research armadillos for my daughtersÂ’ homeschooling lesson.  In the process, I learned more about the mammal than I probably needed to know—that some people eat roadkill armadillo, preparing the poor critter in every way possible and calling it “gourmet.” I learned that one species is the pink fairy armadillo (endangered species). Armadillos can come in 3, 6, or 9-banded. IÂ’ve only seen an armadillo in the zoo, but now I wish I could see one in the wild someday. People living in the American Southwest are probably laughing at me now, as they consider it a pest.

Some bloggers have the most unusual profile names. I really get a kick out of “Pink Freud’s” profile picture—showing the psychotherapist Sigmund Freud in pink hues.

My husband is a psychotherapist and I often joke around and call him “Siggy,” so I was happy to discover “Pink Freud.” HeÂ’s in my blog buddy list, as well as so many other wonderful people from all walks of life.  I wonder if “Pink Freud” is a play on “Pink Floyd,” the rock band. 

So much in the blogging world catches interest; that’s for sure. Today I read a new blogger’s post about wedding plans in a natural history museum. Another blogger posted a picture of a man’s home—filled with over 300 animal trophies

I have made many new friends by blogging. So far, I have blogs on Mindsay.com, homeschoolblogger.com, Journalspace, yahoo360, and blogspot.

Blogging is mind-boggling fun.

Copyright Susan L. Friesen 2006

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Posted by Greenberry on 2006-Mar-17 at 08:20 - Link

A lovely post about what blogging means to you, and about your grandmother. It is wonderful how this simple idea has united people across countries and boundaries.