This Blog is an outlet for the random thoughts of an amateur opinionator.
What's an opinionator?
An opinionator is somebody who has power without responsibility, and the ability to spout off on any subject without worrying too much about the consequences of what comes out of the mouth. All you need is an opinion and the opportunity to voice it.
TV is full of professional opinionators. The internet gives the amateur his chance.
> bLog crusH
Author: aLmich
Yesterday, in my "random notes" post, I mentioned having a serious "blog crush" on Chris Clarke, who publishes Creek Running North and edits Earth Island Journal.
Not unreasonably, John asked:
...what is a "blog crush"?
Am I right in saying you've never met the man? Gay!
A troll made a comment, since deleted, insinuating that my blog crush on Chris was evidence of latent homosexuality. That's not worth responding to I know, and who said I'm straight? but John's query is.
Lots of folks in the blogosphere use the phrase "blog crush".[If someone can tell me with certainty who coined the term, I'd be happy to assign credit!] As I understand it and use it, a "blog crush" refers to a profound degree of admiration, intellectual attraction, and a certain desire to emulate the writing style [or life habits] of the blogger on whom you are crushing.
In my post about "student crushes", I wrote that in my experience, crushes on teachers are rarely about actual sexual desire. I wrote:
We don't just get crushes on people whom we want, we get crushes on people whom we want to be like! Some don't get crushes on me or you because they want to go to bed with us or be our partner or buddy; they get crushes on us because we have a quality that they want to bring out in themselves.
And that's also what I mean by a "blog crush." I may not be that young anymore [a milestone I eagerly anticipate], but I still occasionally find myself idolizing, in a breathlessly adolescent way, certain inspirational people whom I encounter in person or in cyberspace. I call that a "crush". While crushes can have a sexual or a romantic component to them, those qualities are not essential to a crush. A crush is about idealization, even when that idealization is tempered [as it ought to be at my age] by a realistic understanding of human nature.
When I first met an old pastor at MBC, I immediately "crushed" on him... Did I -- do I -- want to sleep with him? No! At my age, with both men and women, I'm able to separate a "crush" from its sexual and romantic aspects. But I loved listening to his sermons. I wanted to know everything about his life, how he lived, how he thought, how his marriage worked, what his favorite sport was, who his own heroes were. I wanted to be near him, and to meet with him as often as possible. I didn't want him sexually, but I saw in him qualities I was eager to bring out in myself. I knew that like me, he was just another flawed human being -- but even in his human brokenness, I could see something glorious shining through and I wanted to be near that as often as possible. I call that "crushing."
I could call it hero-worship, except that I am leery of using the word "worship" for anything other than God. I didn't worship that Pastor, and I don't worship Chris Clarke. Worship implies a hierarchical relationship that I don't think is present in the kind of crushes I'm talking about here. "Crush" is a useful noun [and verb] because it captures the giddy admiration of the experience.
And I also use "crush", frankly, to play around. I am happily connected to my friends. They're wonderful, beautiful people in whom I delight and who delight in me. That said, I recognize we live in a world where there is an extraordinary amount of anxiety about male-male attraction. Heterosexual men have a very hard time acknowledging their love for, or "crushes" [in the sense I use the term] on, other guys...
I have a "blog crush" on Chris Clarke because he writes beautifully. He writes poetry and prose well, but there is a beauty in the grace with which he lives his life -- and in the values he embodies -- that I respond to instinctively. Obviously, I have never met the man. I suppose he could be a fraud, creating a false self on his blog page. In that case, I have a "blog crush" on a phantom! But I suspect he is who he seems to be. And his grace, his earthiness, his gift for language, his commitment to the environment are all things I deeply admire. And as a consequence, I'm crushing on him, big-time.
Does anyone else get what I'm talkin' about here?
I've fairly admitted from previous posts who and what I am, the sexual preference and the world I live in, so if reading my blog is creating a stir on your "pea size brain" and complicates your life, there's an easier way out, END your life.
*my new mantra? Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
