Tuesday, October 12, 2004

The Meaning of "Life"

Posted by Craig Westover | 5:23 PM |  

This announcement at twincities.com got me to thinking . . .

Life magazine is being reborn, again.

Starting this fall, Life will begin appearing on Fridays in more than 50 major newspapers. Time Inc. has made deals with several major newspaper publishers to carry the Life supplement, including Knight Ridder, parent company of the Pioneer Press, and the McClatchy Co., owner of the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune.


. . . About a bit Noel Paul Stookey used to do as part of his solo set during Peter, Paul and Mary concerts. Great bit!

He talked about growing up reading “Life” Magazine. “Life” was all about life. It encompassed the ever-changing kaleidoscope of existence. No topic was beyond the scope of “Life.”

Then there was “People” Magazine. Now people are, indeed a part of life, but they are not all of life. They are not flora or fauna. The are not mineral or vegetable. When you stop to think about it, people are a very small slice of life.

“People” Magazine was quickly followed by “US” Magazine. Now, “us” is part of people, but it’s not all people. Us is not “them,” for example. Us is us. Just us. No one else. We are us.

Well, if you follow the trend, next came “Self” Magazine. Self isn’t life, it isn’t people, it isn’t even us. It’s certainly not them. “Self” is extremely limited compared to “Life.”

Stookey predicted that eventually there would be a magazine entitled “Me,” which would just be reflective shiny pages. I wonder if he reads some of us bloggers.