Legends in our own minds

OK, so the blog party is Wednesday night from 5:30-7:30 at Alexandra's restaurant in Turf Valley.  I plan to attend for the first hour due to another social appointment.

I really commend Jessie (blah blah blah, Jessie's not all of HoCoBlogs, but blah blah blah, she's done all the work for this) for all the effort.  I have we get past the plateau of attendance of about 50 -60 that we attained at the last few parties.

But the volume of the promotion has made me really, really self conscious.  Who the hell are we?  Do we have an impact?

The Julia Louis-Dreyfus thing a few weeks ago was fun, but the story happened to resurface about a week ago locally.  Sadly I can't remember where or I'd have posted the link.  And I can't find it on the Google but it was in a FB friend's post.  And that article made no mention of the huge backlash that the local social media mavens foisted upon poor JDL.  Just mentioned that she made fun of Maryland and Maryland sucks. Hahaha.

So what is it that we do?  What are we about?  We have flashes of this.

Before he got all famous and candidatey for office, Tom Coale raised a bunch of money to help people in recovery and the homeless.  That's kind of cool.

Bill Santos and Frank Hecker write  data-filled treatises about local affairs so detailed that if a PhD in Howard County civics were offered somewhere, they would each surely qualify for it.  That's kind of cool.

When S was hitting the fan in Oakland Mills a couple months ago, there were boots on the ground in the form of three local bloggers who actually live IN the village, Julia McCready, Ian Kennedy (out of retirement!) and yours truly.  That way you could get the up close and personal view about what was baking, and what has baked, the community.  That's kind of cool.

Speaking of Julia, it's cool when people actually IN the education system in Howard County blog their personal experiences and feelings about it.  She and Lisa Schlossnagle do that.  That's kind of cool.

And, as exceptional as we are in Howard County, even our own local version of Borat has to be blonde, blue-eyed and gorgeous!  Not to mention cheeky!  Claire McGill brings an expat's perspective from that strange, foreign land, Great Britain! (?)  That's kind of cool.

And there are dozens of other important local bloggers who share their news, views, opinions, pictures, facts, hopes, joys, sorrows, fears, and a whole lot of other stuff live and in color from this construct we call life.  And that's kind of cool.

So no, I don't think the local blogocracy has fulfilled it's greatest service yet.  Not as a unit.  But as individuals, there are already outstanding community services provided.  We may all be legends in our own minds but they remain our own minds.  And anyone else can join the party at any time!  The job for us, every day, is to stay rightsized and humble.  Don't believe our own press.  And we will all be just fine.

I am going to choose tomorrow night to think about the future of the local blogocracy.  Looking forward to making friends I haven't met yet.  And yes, Marshmallow Man will be available for autographs, as well as photographs, for those of you with the capability for flash photography.

Happy National Hat Day!  Let's be careful out there.

 

Comments

[Jessie]

I'd like a signed autograph, please. Perhaps on the check to a fancy restaurant. ;-p

Hey, Bill, What a great post. Yes, there are many a people who in their lives lived (plus a bit of blogging) make for a richer community. We're a very blessed community in many ways. I was at the ACS Hoco vision convo today about creating a nonprofit center in HoCo earlier today and was reminded again of the many good things happening here in our sliver of the world. I'm thankful for the blogging / social community in particular for helping to make visible what is often invisible, or hard to find and see.

[b.santos]

I was hoping for groupies. I got trolls. That seems about right.