“Phatic Communion is now dead and has been removed. Good luck Curtis.”

“Have me decently buried, but do not let my body be put into a vault in less than two days after I am dead”.  — dying request of George Washington.  [from www.deathonline.net: “Safety coffins.”]

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I suppose that leaving an ambiguous post up for the better part of a week in which I question the viability of continuing Phatic Communion and after which I’ve included no new posts, until now, is a Bad Sign.  In truth, I’ve been rather distracted working my new job and trying to make ends meet.  (They are not quite meeting, but I expect them to meet within a month or so.)

This has been an interesting break from blogging.  I remember reading somewhere the notion that history books only contain a small percentage of the history that has occurred…Persons of interest are given too much credit while everyday Jacks and Jills are ignored.  Blogging’s like that.  Even if the Blogosphere is vast and growing, most bloggers keep up their reading with only a handful or two weblogs:  a small contemporary world history.  I appreciate the return visitors who have continued to visit Phatic Communion in these last couple of weeks despite the dearth of new posts; I’ve been reading a handful of blogs daily even if I have not been posting to my own; but being largely out of blogger mode has only reinforced my impression that so much more life is occurring beyond the Blogosphere.

This consideration does not persuade me to stop blogging, but I have been wondering if various scholarly and punditarian articles in the Blogosphere are more aptly thought of as novelties rather than the real meat of life.

It will be this way forever, won’t it?  I suppose the Blogosphere may be merely the reiteration of television for a new era:  y’know, all those hundreds of millions of people who spend so much free time in front of the boob tube thinking that their cerebral stimulation — from boob tube imagery and sound — is living history.

I can’t help thinking that this may be a very bad thing.  For those following miscellaneous 5GW theories, I just want to say that creating the illusion of life could be a very good softening and/or distracting tactic.  Eden burning is A-o.k. as long as the transmissions continue; but when the transmissions stop, what would anyone be able to do, then?

Of course, my favorite weblogs serve an educational purpose as well.  I live in hope that the experiment will lead some people, if only a very few, to apply what they have learned from the experience.