I have a confession to make. My mind’s a mess!
No, not the “I’m-about-to-have-a-nervous-manic-depressive-breakdown” kind of a mess (though now and then I do feel on the verge of losing my marbles when life overwhelms me).
What I meant about my mind being a mess is that I’m constantly flitting from one thought to another. Ever have that moment in a day when your mind seems to be on a constant washing machine spin cycle? No? Well good for you. I’m not so fortunate.
Even though it looks like I’m pushing out pretty decent self-contained blog posts here weekly, it doesn’t mean I’m all that formed and structured in my thinking every time. I have a bit of a spider web up there in my head. Sometimes I wonder how long I can hold out before my web collapses!
One of the reasons why my mind’s a mess is I have so many different interests and passions. Aside from my oft-publicised remarks about the four cornerstone content pillars that anchor my blog — Autism, Parenting, Writing, and Life — I’m often trying to read up, watch, and learn more about other contemporary social issues. Education. Media. Politics. Friendships. Philosophy. Poetry. Community. And lately, AI.
Don’t ask me why. I don’t have the answer. At least not yet.
To make matters worse, I’m trying to integrate all these disparate fields of interest and discipline into something that makes sense to me. And, hopefully, to you my dear reader.
This probably explains why I often feel like a headless chicken roaming a vast, unfamiliar barnyard. I’m reading one thing, then jumping to another. The next second, a third topic catches my eye, and away I go. Likely down yet another rabbit hole.
By day’s end, I’m spent. And with nothing to show for it, except more questions than answers.
This is why something I read recently made me think that perhaps there is a solution to my conundrum.
I’m calling it My Messy Musings, although the correct terminology I’m told is Digital Gardening.
What’s that you ask? Allow me to explain, or more correctly, attempt to (remember I said “recently”?).
Digital Gardening — According To Yours Truly
My first thought, when I came across the term Digital Gardening, was that it’s some online community that talks about peonies and perepats. I imagine gardening enthusiasts eagerly commiserating and exchanging horticultural hacks in cyberspace. As someone who’s not really into flora and fauna (though not adverse to the occasional nature walk), I thought I’d pass.
But because the jargon came to me via an e-newsletter for writers that I subscribe to, I knew there had to be more than meets the eye.
And so I read on. And my mind started musing. At warp speed!
In my own words, Digital Gardening is all about parking — onto a digital site — various seemingly disparate ideas, topics, and issues (pick your terminology) that are either half or barely formed. Just like a garden that is always growing, changing, maybe even dying, all the writings on such a site are constant works-in-progress. It’s kinda like a cross between a structured blog and a pile of random post-it notes with spontaneous scribblings.
One might even find connections between these ideas and link them up at some point down the line.
Digital Gardening — According To The Trailblazers
But you don’t have to take it from me of course. After all, I’m still reading, and I might add reeling, from this concept of writing online. (Fingers firmly crossed that this ain’t another rabbit hole I’m digging myself into, but an actual “garden of possibilities” I can cultivate to expand my writing capabilities)
An MIT Technology Review essay, published in September 2020 by Tanya Basu, explains it this way:
Digital gardens explore a wide variety of topics and are frequently adjusted and changed to show growth and learning, particularly among people with niche interests. It’s less about connections and feedback, and more about quiet spaces they can call their own.
Digital gardens can be edited at any time to reflect evolution and change. The idea is similar to editing a Wikipedia entry, though digital gardens are not meant to be the ultimate word on a topic. As a slower, clunkier way to explore the internet, they revel in not being the definitive source, just a source...the whole point of digital gardens is that they can grow and change and that various pages on the same topic can coexist.
The practitioners of Digital Gardening include the likes of Anne-Laure, Maggie Appleton, Mike Caufield, and Mark Bernstein (whose 1998 essay Hypertext Gardens might have been the first recorded mention of the term). Look them up for more details.
Why Digital Gardens Appeals To Me…Conceptually
Writing is often spade work, akin to the spade work in gardening.
In gardening, you get a pot or a plot of land. You till the soil, plant the seed and give it lots of love, water, and sunshine. Then you stand back, survey your toil, and hope for the best.
In writing, you get a blank sheet. You throw in some words on the way to form an idea, argument, or story. You add lots more words, sentences, and paragraphs. Move them around until they come together meaningfully. Or so you hope. Then you stand back, survey the piece, and see if it looks like something decent and coherent.
Many times the garden and the blank sheet look messy. So you return again and again to re-till, re-write. At times, you have to leave them alone for a while, returning later with fresh eyes and perspectives. The classic work-in-progress.
I like that. It’s raw. Unfinished. Just like the premise of my blog: One dad’s raw and unfinished journey with autism, parenting, writing, and life.
Why I’m not ready for Digital Gardening…yet
But here’s the thing. Whenever I upload a post, I try to make it sound “complete”. A clear start, middle, and end. The standard most readers know and expect when engaging with a piece of writing.
Life though, as we know, isn’t complete most of the time. It’s messy. Raw. Unfinished.
If I’m to stick to my blog’s premise, it should appear more Wiki-like. More a digital garden than what it is now, which is a fairly tidy site. With clear categories in tabs, and everything written in a complete, systematic, easy-to-see structure that’s in reverse chronology.
Yet therein lies the rub. Though I embrace raw and messy in my writing journey, I’m also quite a neat freak and abhor the look of Wiki sites. They remind me of the early days of the Internet in the 90s, and the static look of the version 1.0 websites that peppered cyberspace then.
In addition, I am not a coder. I’m the very opposite of tech-savviness! This entire blog can look the way it does because I had help from WordPress and its bevy of troubleshooting technicians (thanks WP!). So the very thought of overhauling my site’s existing look and feel…I’m trembling just thinking about it!
Of course in this day and age, it isn’t hard to set up sites even if one’s abysmal with all things digital. With sites like Obsidian and TiddlyWiki, one as hopeless as I am with web setups should in theory be able to DIY my way into this space. And if that’s not enough, just check out the other options recommended by Ness Labs, a site dedicated to supporting content creators like me to strategize and work “mindfully”.
The question though is, should I overhaul my site now? To start venturing out now and try Digital Gardening? Or stay in and stay comfortable?
Only time will tell. But for now, it’s nice to know there are creatives out there who are bucking trends and defying conventions.
The very definition of creativity!
