Metamorphoses

I was on our blog last night, going through the entries one by one from the beginning. Only 35 entries in about 84 days got me wondering about the things we included and the things we left out. It seems in many ways that we were a bit lazy, that our blog posts were dependent on pretty pictures and not really much commentary or insight. So this post will have no pictures, but also not much insight unfortunately. Also I was thinking about the details we left out and the things we leave out in general – in stories, diary entries, memories themselves – both intentionally and unintentionally. The little things, the boring and mundane things, the ugly things; the kind of negative spaces of life against which the version our lives we would prefer is pictured. Made me think about the nature of memory, about what sticks and why. I think our methods of recording have been severely diluted from the richness of multisensory memory to the paleness of photography and writing (particularly blog posts), but it is interesting how these media refract the colour of our experiences into a new array of tones and shades which become further metamorphosed by encounters with others’ interpretation systems.

During the time spent on the farm, where once the possibility for interesting, varied pictures had been mostly exhausted, our blog went silent, when in fact the most interesting thoughts were running through my head and fascinating interpersonal dynamics were evolving with the other members of the farm community. Neither of these topics was perhaps appropriate for this blog, nor would they have been particularly interesting to read about, but it just got me thinking about things. Mainly about the fact that this is our last week in the USA and that on Friday we are off to New Zealand, and thus this blog as a purely travel blog will either come to an end or will have to morph into something else. I’d like to continue this blog, but I would like to change its character. I like the idea of an adventure blog, which was the idea – encapsulated in the name – to begin with, but it would be the recording of a completely different kind of adventure. The kind which includes more of the little, boring, ugly, negative-space-type occurrences of daily life. I think I’d like that. Not sure what Elsje thinks about this, but – as with the inception of this blog – she is at the moment otherwise engaged and unable to comment.