Fallen Stars

Blogs are an endangered species.  I went “blog walking” today.  That's a catchy phrase I picked up just now when I read it on somebody’s dying blog. The sad thing is there’s no closure for expired blogs. They just stop right where they are.  Kind of like Sleeping Beauty’s family and servants and dogs and rising bread—the second she pricked her finger on the spindle, someone pushed ‘pause’ on her DVD and everything froze.  Like Pompeii, but with prettier pomp.

I feel bad for abandoned blogs. Every blog deserves to know it’s as special to its author as mine is to me. Well, actually, that’s a lie. Secretly, I'm afraid they’re all competition and I silently cheer their demise. Now I feel so guilty. What a terrible thing to think!  I guess I should make it up to all those orphaned blogs who’ve suffered at the hands of both their creators and now my narcissistic nonsense.

So, out of obligation, I present to you this potter’s field of non-viable blogs. They were probably fun while they lasted.  And if no Prince Charming ever shows up at their domain with the kiss of life, then let us all learn the lesson—you snooze, you lose.

Here in no particular order are some of the latest blogs who may have breathed their last. May they rest in peace.

·         The Cutest Blog On The Block expired at the ripe old age of five, leaving no surviving photos or stories since March of 2010.

·         The Nappy Rash was last seen in January 2012.  It’s not hard to figure out what went wrong there, beginning with the name.  Ewww.

·         Downhill Dawn hasn’t been heard from since it headed down to Raleigh in early 2010.  Looks like the sun set on that one.

·         ShawnDownUnder wrote his own epitaph in June of 2011, a full year after his previous post announcing that “Another One Bites The Dust”.  Just         self-fulfilling prophecy, if you ask me.

·         In December a year ago, Mikey Mused out loud and on paper that he was bored by his relationship with his blog and was considering leaving for a while, though he thought he’d keep his options open and perhaps revisit sometime in case nothing better came along.  In his case, I believe his blog should leave him. What a two-timer.

Four or five of the next blogs I met on my walk were birthed by marathoners who only stop by to say hello when they’ve conquered another mountain and have photos to share. Part-time bloggers, full-time joggers.  But it’s quality time when they do show up.

Over and over I read the writing on blog walls. The signs were all there. Growing lapses between posts. Boring apologies and excuses when they did show up again.  Each time it was the same old story—“It’s been a while since I posted . . .” followed by silence, and then nothing more than a lonely blog left wondering if it was something they said.

They’re kind of like stars, these cyber journals. Or flares. Each shines brightly in the internet galaxy, full of photos and color and creativity, until you read the date of the last post and realize it died two years ago and all you’re looking at is residual light. A melancholy reminder of what might have been.

So to all the blogs listed above and the dozens more who have faded away as well, I empathize with your sense of abandonment. I hope you know you didn’t do anything wrong. If it were up to me, I’d take you all home with me and nurture you back to life.

Are you buying that? Nah. Me neither. I don't feel that bad about it.

**Some blog names may have been altered to protect me from possible flak from falling stars. I know I’d take it personally if somebody didn’t like what I write and started calling me sour grapes from the winepress. I may be narcissistic, but I’m sensitive.

 

(Photo courtesy of twenty_questions' photostream at flickr.com)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/twenty_questions/2764085976/