Family Essays and Facebook

Lately, my past is catching up to me. No matter how hard I try to hide, fate has a way of bashing down the door and smacking me on the face....whack whack....then thumping me on the nose for good measure.

My fate is to write.

Even when I don't feel like it or even know what to write.

To wit, I googled myself and saw all the pages of stories, poems and essays that I have written in the past and just knew that I was going to have to come out of my self-imposed exile and just "do it"!

So here I am. Without much to say, but babbling it anyway.

I used to think that having a southern heritage was something to be extremely proud of, that no one else would understand the southern family dynamics, that no one else would have the same kind of stories to tell.

Flannery O'Conner once said, "Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one."

Is this because southerners are freaks?

No, but my in-laws might think otherwise.

I believe it is because the sweltering heat down there messes with your brain, making you do things and say things you might not ordinarily. So, in a way we might be freaks, but I'll tell you one thing; there are a lot of freaks up here in the northern mid-west as well. You just don't hear about them as much.

I also believe that most southerners want to be in the spotlight. After losing to the North, y'all know what I'm talking about, maybe one of the only ways to show they were still here, still alive, was to create this persona of a gentile, yet quite batty, people, and then write about them.

"What has always been clear, for Southerner and non-Southerner alike, is that Dixie is the most fascinating part of the country. There may be a book out there called 'The Great Midwest' or 'A Turn in the Midwest' or 'The Mind of the Midwest' or 'The Midwestern Mystique', but if there is I'm certainly not aware of it."

--Fred Hobson

So, I'll be content to carry on the tradition. I'll write about my family's history, maybe add some northern bits and pieces to the batter, and hopefully bake a nice literary cake.

In between, you can find me over on Facebook. I'm addicted, don't you know? In fact, I wrote a little poem about my addiction...

Facebook, oh Facebook
why must you be
so danged addictive
with all this social repartee?

The games and quizes are
offered up like a buffet,
so many friends of old
stopping by to say "Hey!"

Farmtown and Yoville,
Bejeweled and Farkle,
Mafia Wars and Superpoke Pets,
make my life sparkle.

Facebook, Dear Facebook
you've made my life grand,
and if anyone tries to bother me
they can talk to the hand!

© 2009 Dana Sieben