Years ago. 1969. My 2 cousins and I embarked on a road trip westward: the first “adventure” away from home & school for each of us. We drove from Minnesota to California in Tom’s ‘54 Chevy. We’d attached a cardboard sign to the back of the car on which we had written “Happy Trails.” We saw the brilliant trail of the Milky Way drop down into a fogged filled valley at Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado. We pulled into a Mesa Verde campsite at 2:00 in the morning and saw what seemed like a million stars in the sky above. I came so close to loosing my virginity in Las Vegas. (Another story) And we dropped Mescaline on a windswept beach at Point Sur and spent a day building sand castles and watching the waves roll in.

After the sun had sent, and as we were making our way back to the car, I found a empty bottle and decided to write a note and put it in the bottle. I wrote something indicating place and date… and included my address.

Something like a month or two later, I received a letter from a girl named Ginny Satz. She’d found my bottle & note. Her letter was postmarked from Florida. I soon dismissed the thought that my bottle had somehow drifted ‘round Cape Horn. She & friends had visited the very same beach sometime later and had found my note.

Soon we were corresponding on a regular basis. I was going to school at the University of Minnesota and trying to free myself from, what had been up to that point, a very sheltered existence. Ginny was living the life of a gypsy vagabond, traveling around the U.S., going to music festivals, and writing poetry. We didn’t exchange pictures or vital statistics. Our connection was heartfelt.

Much later, we met. I was visiting with my friend, Eferde, in Flagstaff, Arizona, and it so happened that the place where Ginny was living was just down the road in Mountainaire. I wrote her a letter, asking if I was near. Two days later, Eferde and I, returning from an errand, drove into the apartment parking lot to see this wee girl run up to our car with a letter in her hands: Ginny.

We spent parts of the next week together. I spent a night at her cabin. But our letter writing days would end. I think the fantasy we shared ran headlong into the reality of our lives. I was not the stunted dwarf she imagined me to be. And she & her boyfriend had vowed to be true to one another. Later they would marry. She went her way. I went mine. We wrote a time or two later… that’s all.

Ginny. I love you for that. I still have your letters.

Somewhere.

In lieu of certain blogging efforts which failed to produce an intended effect, or, for that matter, any effect at all, I’m turning efforts to constructing and maintaining a Facebook site. This is another personal 30-day challenge/project, what have you, to try something new and experience the medium’s potentials and limitations.

Many people dismiss Facebook for a variety of reasons. Many of these same people don’t write letters, don’t call me on the phone and don’t invite me to lunch. Eh, Maybe it’s something about me… Is that what we’re thinking? Or…

Nevertheless… I’m inspired by Anna Moon’s Facebook page. Anna is the daughter of Tom & Diane & sister of Ben. Tom is my cousin and former best friend from waaaayyyy back. Hmm… Anna has been doing this work stint in Antartica the past 3 years, then has traveled extensively over the planet. And she has connected with people all during  this time and is able to maintain the connection with the help of Facebook.

And the other day, a fellow who I remember from 11th grade (relative Dark Ages of my existence) sent me a Facebook friend request which triggered my imagination in all sorts of ways as to making connections with people who, I either once knew, or people I know but would like to know better, or people who I don’t yet know but could get to be acquainted with, or, at least, have a significant exchange of some kind.

People who are on Facebook are more likely to be agreeable to this form of online exchange, as opposed to a more limited pool of people who I now know but who resist communicating/connecting/engaging for any number of reasons. They have their own pathways. And now, through the wonder of the Internet and the World Wide Web, We, who engage, have the possibility of virtual communities, virtual friends, and  real exchanges.

And if you’re in town, let’s get together and have a beer… or coffee… or…

With this notice I am suspending operation of the Film Noir Nuit and H.A.Dreamers weblogs. Both blogs were an outgrowth of the 30-day challenge which resulted in the Kaliqatsi Blog, which will prevail.

A friend said to me- Surely you do this blogging activity for reasons of personal interest and self-satisfaction. While this may be true of the Kaliqatsi blog, these other two were directed to more select audiences as a means for individuals within those groups to participate in an ongoing dialogue about items of more specialized interest. Call it what you will… a blog, a clubhouse, a forum… each blog was an opportunity for a participating individual to expand personal thoughts beyond the confines of his or her own mind and to engage with the expressions of others: interior individual monologue expanded to external community dialogue.

People have different excuses and (sometimes good) reasons for not involving themselves in this experiment. Fact is, without participation of others, there is little point  for my efforts along these lines to continue.

I still see the promise of blogging as a means of communication, with select advantage over email, twitter, facebook and other modes of this ilk. But apparently, those others of my acquaintance find sufficiency with their current means of doing what they do in the spaces and places where they do it, and I must content myself with their satisfaction.

“There you go, man…”

I plan to concentrate my online efforts with the Kaliqatsi Weblog. Your comments and contributions there are always welcome.