“The Primum Mobile that fashioned us
Has made the very owls in circles move;
And I, that count myself most prosperous,
Seeing that love and friendship are enough, …”
— W.B Yeats, in the poem “My Descendants”
“So…” said Level.
We waited. It was one of those “so’s” that means a question or pontification, or even a pontificating question, is coming.
“So, is this Porch blog going to be just about the exciting world of porch porches, or is it going to be like mysterious and metaphysical, with “the porch” (yes, Level is the type that makes big finger quote signs) being some kind of symbol or analogy for the mystery of it all?”
I pondered this a minute. On the porch you’re allowed to think before you answer. I liked that phrase, “the mystery of it all”, but didn’t want to tell Level. His “curmudgeon” persona can be annoying, especially when it‘s pointed at me. Besides, we’d covered this before.
“Yes,” I finally answered.
Level grunted. “Well, you should have a plan.”
Wolfflow laughed, which always makes my day. “You should have menus!” She does speak in exclamation points. Honest. “Meals to eat on the porch!” She wiggled big quote signs with her fingers, giggled mischievously, and winked at Level. “Most people are more interested in eating on the porch than sitting around pondering the mystery of it all.”
“Yeah. That’s a good idea,” said Becky. “You could ask your readers to send their porch pictures and share their own porch or patio stories. Patios are the same thing. I think a lot of women would like that.”
Yes, patio’s count. We’ve had many a wonderful hour on this one with friends in Wisconsin.
I made my thoughtful smirking face, which says a lot. It annoyed me that they were probably right. Who would do a blog on just porches? “Well, I wasn’t necessarily trying to please everyone…and it’s really just a practice blog…”
Even Marlowe chimed in. “Not just women. Sailors too. My sailboat is my other porch. Eating is also important to sailors.” Et tu Marlowe?
Becky asked, “What sex are sailors?”
“Not much barbequing on your sailboat,” said Level.
Marlowe scowled. “It’s got a galley.”
“Ha,” scoffed Level. “No one but Non-Vietnamese Dave can stand up in it.”
“Besides,” I added, nobly ignoring the nit-picking, “I don’t really have many readers, and I’m not exactly sure how you get them. I don’t really know what I’m doing. But, definitely, I’ll add menus to the plan – when I get one. It’s just a practice blog.”
I wondered if I really would add menus, or get a plan. “I guess patios can be the same as porches. But somehow the word doesn’t quite mean the same thing to me.”
See, I was wrong. Patios are fun.
No one said anything for a while. Then Sensible Dave finally spoke. “I can’t quite stand up in Marlowe’s galley.” This brought a big laugh from Wolfflow, which I’m sure, is why he said it. We all try to make Wolfflow laugh, not that it’s hard.
The mystery of it all, is just as mysterious on a driveway. A driveway makes a great patio/porch. You can eat in the garage, when it rains.
SD continued, “But I think I know what Dave means about patios. People hide out in the back yard and have parties on them. Nothing wrong with that, of course. But it doesn’t fit with the idea of the front porch as a social place watching the neighbors go by and interacting with them. It doesn’t really matter, though. You can’t exclude them. Not everyone has a porch…or a sailboat. ”
“Oh boy,” laughed Level. “I can see we’re headed for the nit-picky merry-go-round.”
S-Dave chuckled. “I like merry-go-rounds.”
Quotes:
“For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle,
And the merry love to dance:”
–W.B. Yeats in the poem “The Fiddler of Dooney”
“Seventy years man and boy,
And never have I danced for joy.”
–W.B. Yeats in the poem “Imitated from the Japanese”
“No Sane man will dance.”
— Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
Great solutions to great mysteries will be revealed while cooking a marshmallow.
“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”
– Tom Clancy
I Am on the Porch 