My Readers: More Friends than Followers

I have noticed something recently; I have been falling really behind in my blog reading!  If you look at the list of blogs I follow, you'll see why.  I'm not inclined to trim my list, because there are so many wonderful, beautiful blogs there, many that focus on specific subjects in which I'm interested.  The other thing that most of them have in common are the bloggers who produce them -- mostly vibrant, intelligent, humorous women who provide a lift for my day.

I'm not giving up my long list of favorite blogs, and will continue to monitor the newest posts and visit when I can.

But I want to make a promise to a group of people that give me another type of boost.  In the blog world, they're called "followers".  I choose to call them my friends. Most of them are also bloggers. I am not a person who claims 500 friends on Facebook; neither do have have thousands of followers on my blog.  I know that I never will and am content with that.

My blog is one of those who is visited (as expressed by one of those funny ladies who makes my day better) by "tens of readers each day."  Actually, make mine "tens of readers each week", on a good week.
The advantage of the smaller numbers is that I can actually consider these readers friends.  They are more likely to get to know me, and through their comments and my visiting their blogs, I can get to know them.

So this is my promise to my blogger friends (aka "followers").  I will visit your blog (if you have one) at least twice a week.  I won't wait until your latest post appears on my reader, which will lessen the chance that I'll overlook it.  I will comment sometimes so that you'll know I've been there, but even when I don't comment, you can know that I'm in the background, not lurking, but interested in what you're doing and what you have to say.

That's what friends are for.  I couldn't do this if I had 5,000 friends, but since I have a (much) smaller number, I can.  I'm happy about that.

Annie

p.s.  If you happen to read this post and are not a friend/follower, please don't consider it a ploy to add to my numbers.  If you feel a kinship or like what I've written, please add yourself to my circle of blog friends.

Music Contributes to the Fabric of our Lives

You may have seen the television commercial about cotton -- the touch, the feel, the fabric of our lives.  I would like to add that, for me at least, music is a great contributor to that fabric.  We all have favorite musical selections, whether they be popular music, classical, jazz, opera, etc., that we choose to hear again and again.  In addition to those favorites, there's another category of music that may have an even deeper connection to our memories and our life story.  You might consider this "background music", but I believe that it is very powerful, almost like our sense of smell; it can transport us back to a time and place in the same way.

I'll give you some examples from my own life:

My parents' record collection included two selections that take me back to my childhood.  The first is Till Then by the Mills Brothers.  I will always connect that song to my dad's service during World War II and his being apart from my mother.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYQ2yc9g51c

The second is from a record that I asked my mother to play over and over.  I loved the rhythm and would even (try to) dance to it.  It's Blue Flame by the Woody Herman Orchestra.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3BfSTc0vc8

I am transported back to my childhood breakfast table by gospel songs played on Old Camp Meeting Time, such as On the Wings of a Dove http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLfGCs_sV1A and I'll Fly Away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr_3TVucft0&feature=related

When I was a teenager during the 60's, popular music accompanied almost every event.  A few songs take me back to specific friends and events.  When I hear Twist and Shout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVlr4g5-r18  I am driving my Buick convertible with my friend, Judy, and we're singing along.  If it didn't happen to be playing on the radio, we sang our own version, without accompaniment. (Twist and Shout can also take me to Albuquerque in the 1980's, when my new husband, his children and mine had our own version taped in an amusement park.)  If I should hear Gene Chandler's Duke of Earl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9PoUsRibtE, I am again in my convertible, singing with my friend Beverly, as we drive the country highways of southeast Missouri.

My mother was hospitalized in Memphis when I was a junior in high school and a couple of songs will always remind me of riding in the car with my dad, on the way to visit my mother.  I remember these songs especially because he mentioned that he liked them and because they spoke of his love for her.  They were Let It Be Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWWXJObowsI&feature=related and We'll Sing in the Sunshine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxZI0Cxaq20

Now I find that, more and more, music reminds me of my children and my grandchildren, often to school and church performances and concerts.  Lean on Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPoTGyWT0Cg&feature=related   by Bill Withers takes me to the Great Lakes Naval Base when my son graduated from basic training; he was soloist for a select choir performance of the song.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LBmUwi6mEo will always be connected to Christmas lights in my memory.  Our blended family drove to the city to see the displays shortly after Tom and I married and we entertained ourselves by singing "a wimoweh a wimoweh" over and over.

There are many more examples of the "background music" that have given my own life and memories texture and detail.  I'm sure that you have your own and would love to hear about them.

Love,
Annie