Reciprocal Communication

I shamelessly lifted this phrase from Anne Wysocki for several reasons:

1. I like the word reciprocal. Its sound is at once playful and refreshing.
2. The use of reciprocal to modify communication makes perfect sense to me, until I try to explain it. Like tracing an infinity symbol.
3. Wysocki argues that all communication is reciprocal, whether we are fully aware of its reciprocity or no. (e.g. the falseness of viewing "... a woman's lovely in-soft-focus-so-as-to-almost-glow white ass..." as if it were "... without social or other consequences [...] of us somehow being shaped by the viewing."
4. This seems to strike particularly close to the [he]art of blogging.

This concept holds meaning for the blogger. Wysocki presents the idea (quite persuasively) that form and content are never truly inseparable. Not fully. Even if we would like them to be. She furthermore urges that we view ourselves as “…capable of making change, of composing work that not only fits its circumstances but that also helps its audiences—and its makers—re-vision themselves and try out new and more thoughtful relations between each other.”

The whole “conversation” at hand is centered on this issue of beauty: creating, appreciating, and understanding it. In this, I think that my husband and Anne Wysocki would get along well. He is particularly fond of telling me that I am beautiful (as many husbands tell their wives), but he generally does it in such a way that shows the beauty to be a thing of his creation, rather than my possession. For example, he will say it after I find something stuck in my teeth, or when I have just woken up in my own drool. Before the women reading this induct him into sainthood, I’ll mention that he at least partially does this for kicks. It never fails to make us laugh.

But people “in love,” or those choosing to practice the art of loving others have long participated in the tradition of building beauty. Parents find their children beautiful. Spouses find each other beautiful. Dog owners find their mutts beautiful. Many children, spouses, and dogs (to make an odd collection) may possess the kind of beauty (abstract formality?) that would win them facebook contests and endorsements, but not all of us that have found ourselves lucky to be loved in one of these ways could make that claim!

So beauty is (or ought to be) reciprocal. It involves communication. Communication is reciprocal. Even blogging.

How will I understand this union of form and content that I call my blog? Is it beautiful? Will I be able to make “day-to-day particular[s] stand out against the background of the larger realm of steady social practices”? Can I make that change?