You can tell from the photo above, taken in a motel room sometime in the 1970s, that sharing did not come easily to me as a child. While my siblings are perfectly content to sleep three across, horizontally, on a double bed -- my brother already snoring and my sister basking in the breeze of the air conditioner, inches from her face -- I'm shooting daggers at the camera. It was probably my dad behind the lens, proudly documenting my mom's genius for fitting ten pounds of flour in a five pound sack.
These days, writing a weekly blog post is one big exercise in sharing, and I absolutely love it. In fact, I'm going to post twice a week. Every Monday, I will be sharing a list of links from around the internet. I don't yet know what to call these posts. Maybe you can brainstorm with me? Here are a few thoughts:
Distractions
Playing Hookie
Procrastinating on a Monday
The Monday List
Whatever the title of the weekly post, it will be in 'listicle' format. Isn't that an interesting word? I read a great essay in the University of Chicago magazine about the word listicle. It was formed, according to writer Arika Okrent, from a blend of “list” and “article." She explains: "I always interpreted it as referring to prose in popsicle form: vertically arranged, quickly consumed, not too nutritious, but fun. That seems to me much more evocative than plain old “list article.” "
Listicles are everywhere these days. I can't help but clicking on them, especially the ones like "Five Reasons Why No One's Reading Your Blog." It is irresistible to think that perhaps the secret to blog success is five bullet points away. So I click.
But I don't mean to jump on the bandwagon. This is more about simple sharing. I spend an inordinate amount of time hitchhiking on the Internet highway and I think you would like to see some of the amazing places I've been. If you subscribe to the blog, you will still receive an email on Fridays, but it will contain two posts: a listicle and a post in essay form.
Back to Ms. Okrent. Her essay on listicles is really quite fine. She draws a comparison between listicles and limericks and haikus that is very convincing, and in true intellectual fashion, she ends her essay with this little example of a limerick:
A lady assembled a listicle
To give interesting facts a receptacle.
Lists make the world neater
For many a reader
(But this is a limerick so … testicle).
You can read the entire essay here. See you Monday!