I am Glenn Specht, when I’m not Amanda Glenn. I am a mother, a grandmother, a lover of classic movies, a gardener, a published writer of cozy and adventure mysteries and apocalyptic Sci-Fi. Also on occasion I am a guest blogger, the supplier of three to six hundred well-chosen words, generally on the subject of classic movies.
Now I would like to think that all my words are well chosen, but three to six hundred words! People who know me are aware that I often speak in sentences longer than that. That can make me a dangerous guest on a Pod cast. That may also explain why I do not tweet, or Snap Chat. I have a hard time texting. My emails have real sentences and paragraphs, generally start with a salutation, and end with “Love”. Oh, yes, and I hate emoji’s. English has all kinds of words that express feeling far better than those unlovely shortcuts. And don’t get me going on turning sentences into stock symbols. The first time I heard LOL, the acronym was used for “Little Old Ladies” as in, “LOL’s in white sneakers are the power behind the gray panthers”. A few years passed and LOL had morphed into Lots of Luck. Now, if it has not already moved on from what I understand to be the latest definition, LOL means Laughing Out Loud. I’ve got to tell you this LOL wishes you LOL figuring out all the alpha cryptics that have me scratching my head and LOL.
When it comes to communicating with family and friends I always prefer a telephone call. I want to hear my children’s and friend’s voices. I want to be able to get the feel of their state of well-being or distress. That is only one of the reasons I do not do Facebook. One on one we may say what we are really feeling, express a need, an anger, a frustration, a pleasure. With a perceived audience, presenting ourselves like a lead article in a magazine, the human tendency results in communications that come off more like Christmas letters – too good to be true.
My one unsettling feeling is that constant communication is ghettoizing the continual reinforcement of our ideas as they echo back and forth among those who agree. It is more than the difficulty in letting any new fact or thought in that might expand or reshape ones ideas - heads down, ears occupied, any part of the world that is not on your device does not exist. (Until it runs over you.)
Far shorter than the sixty to one hundred thousand words in one of my books, a blog has in it the seed of an idea; it is a mechanism of open conversation. For me a blog is about as short as it gets. I do not want to be in your ear like a buzzing bee. I would like to drop in now and again for a conversation.
Love, Glenn.