Water Dissolves Water

The problem with committing to maintaining a blog on a daily basis is the underlaying conceit, inherent in the very concept of blogging, that you actually have something interesting to say every day. Actually, a web log is really nothing more or less than a diary, and when I use the word "diary," I'm reminded of two things. First, I think of the 19th Century Brittanics who maintained journals of their adventures across the Empire ("These Zulus really are to be commended for their most remarkable attempts at providing a proper cup of tea each afternoon, despite the unpleasantries with their tribal neighbors"). Secondly, I think of sixteen-year-old schoolgirls from my past who kept "top secret" diaries in decorative clasped-and-bound books of pink paper and thematic covers ("Dear Diary, Brad is acting like such a jerk today . . . "), or whatever - I was never priviliged to read them.

In the case of the former, their swashbuckling lives and nonplussed manner provided daily fodder to maintain their journals. The latter, however, usually found that after a week or two, they were really just saying the same thing over and over ("Brad is still such an idiot!") and got bored of the effort. In any event, for the Brittanics, their lives were the subject and the journals merely the record of their lives. To the schoolgirls, the diary itself, literally the book, not the contents, was the subject ("See? I've got this cute little book, therefore, I must be cute, too, and have a life") Libra ergo sum?.

Sometimes, I wonder which type of diary "Water Dissolves Water" actually is. Is it the medium or the message? Am I blogging to share myself with tout le monde, my experiences, ideas, dharma insights, politics and humors, or am I just crying out, "Hey! I'm here!?"

This is a rhetorical question. Please don't answer this.

It is worth noting that this blog has now completed its 12th month. One year. The actually anniversary will be May 21, the date of the first entry, although the conceptual DOB is May 6th, 2004, when Philip Kapleau passed away while I was reading his "Three Pillars of Zen" and I first thought about using the net to record quotes and readings from my dharma studies. Nowadays, I can hardly recognize what this blog has morphed into - it seems partly diaristic, partly dharmic, partly ranting and partly (poor) humor. It serves as a letter to home, as part of a dialog with a few other bloggers, and as a mnemonic for readings and scriptural passages I wanted to record.

Anyway, today, absolutely nothing happened in which I can find any avenue for crafting a blog entry. I went to work and had a most unremarkable day. Nothing much really happened - I did not save the world, nor did I reach any compromise that jeopardized the health and safety of the planet. I did some paperwork, prepared for next week's client reception, cashed my expense check from the San Francisco trip and bought an airline ticket to Chicago for next month. Other than that - bubkes.

No great dharma insights presented themselves to me. I didn't read anything noteworthy on global warming. I didn't make any new friends. I didn't wreck my car or succumb again to the flu. This uneventfulness left me neither copacetic nor depressed, neither satisfied nor unfulfilled.

So, therefore, I can only offer this Seinfeldian "blog about nothing." Thanks for reading. Enjoy your day.