into someone else's blog is a strange experience. I do not mind other people prowling in to visit my blog. That is what it is there for. Mind you, it was hard to actually get the courage up to start a blog. Would anyone else actually read it? Would I feel like an idiot writing a blog?
It has taught me a lot. I found other blogs. They are so varied and so interesting. I have to limit myself or I would not work, would not write.
But, once in a while, someone like Nicola Morgan or Jane Smith will throw a birthday party or a pitch party and I feel I have an excuse to go prowling into other people's blogs. I see little snippets of their lives and, from those clever enough to do it, there are pictures so I can see what they actually look like. I wish Nicola had shown us a picture of her pink wellies!
And it reminded me of another oddity in life that I have been pondering, the right to enter other people's property - or not.
Yes, I know about trespassing and invitee status and a few other legal niceities but it is the psychology that interests me. If I have been asked to water plants or feed a cat while someone is away then I feel comfortable about visiting their territory. I will open their letterbox, remove their mail, use a key to enter their house and so on -because I have been requested to do so. Once they are home again I hesitate to enter their property at all and would not dream of doing any of those things.
I wonder how other people can canvass for charity, political parties, action groups, their religion or a host of other things. How can they enter a stranger's property when I find it hard to enter the property of those I know? Is it perhaps easier to enter a stranger's property? I could not do it but perhaps it is easier for them? What is it that makes them feel they have the right to do it?Do they really feel comfortable?
Perhaps it is just simply that most people have more confidence than cowardice? I am a coward.
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11 comments:
You must be weird for a cat! Most wander in and out at will!
For those of us without fur, I think it is respect for privacy, just plain old good manners.
Judy B
Well, yes I am a rather peculiar cat!
Hi
I saw the word cat and imediately had to see your blog!
It was very very strange starting a blog (I only plucked up the courage to do so when this month) and I did so with the usual insecurities and uncertainties. I'm also generally very nosey but extremely private!
As for the issue of privacy etc... maybe it's down to motivation?
Theives and the like enter strangers' properties for obvious motivations. People who knock on doors to canvas/do a survey maybe do so because they are passionate about their cause(s).
Or are paid to do so.
And I don't think you're a coward. You just have a high regard for peoples' personal spaces!
Take care
I would never dream of trespassing on anybody's territory but I do raid people's psychology - I steal the mechanisms of their brains to fill my character's heads - does that make me a thief?
What an interesting idea Rachel! I don't know but I don't think so... too hot for the deep and philosophical at present.
I guard my own territory and have the upmost respect for other peoples. A door-to-door salesperson, I am not.
Looking at other blogs though...well that is a different matter.
We have a little note in the slot next to the front door which just -quite politely - says, "No canvassers please." (We put it there after my father was harassed by a certain religious group following my mother's death.)
It works - within reason. It is also the way I would treat other people.
Our neighbours have two small boys. When the sun is out in full swing, I can hear them splashing about in a portable swimming pool.
The other day, my cat dashed into the house at one crazy speed. Her legs and belly were completely soaked. It goes to show that staying at home, rather than poking in others property, is the smart move. :P
I also found it hard to get up the courage to start a blog when I started mine about a year ago. I felt nobody would want to read it and I might be looking foolish, but now I just enjoy writing it. Better still, of course, if people visit, and some have been so supportive.
I've also had to start making an effort to publicise my memoir in various ways on the basis that if nobody knows about my memoir, nobody will read it, and maybe just some of those who don't know about it might want to read it if they did know about it (excuse the waffle of this sentence). But I don't find it easy. It's so 'not me' to be knocking on doors where I wasn't invited.
Hi, Catdownunder! I'm over visiting from Nicola's party, late though I am :). Your comments always crack me up. Thanks for inviting us over!
I've seen you commenting on many of the same blogs I visit, but not until Nicola's party did I feel comfortable prowling around your domain. Weird how that works, isn't it?
I have always loved walking through neighborhoods at night and seeing people's lights on. Not that I'm going to peer into their windows, I'm not a pervert after all, but I may take an innocent glance. I like the idea of life going on somewhere and I am somehow priveleged to be a part of it, even in a small way.
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