Leafy Greens
"I am what I am. And that's all that I am."
- Traditional Maritime Folk Song
Let's just be honest, writing a blog is a weird exercise in self-indulgence.
It's a fine line. On the one hand you have to have an interesting enough life, or at least enough experiences with the real world, to have something to put down on the keyboard. On the other, get too busy and wrapped up in experience and there's no time to reflect on what you're doing. Is it bad to be so busy with life you don't really have the time to stop and think about it? Do we need to analyze ourselves to try and figure out what we're doing or should we just get off the couch and go do it?
Many successful blogs seem to have a lens through which to focus themselves, movies, politics, a specific interest like say, technology or praying mantises (mantisee? mantesii?) which gives a purpose to the urge to communicate with the faceless masses of the internet. It gives a rhyme and reason to post, a new development in the field, a statement made concerning the topic, the latest release to sort through. You've got something to say and a specific thing to say it upon. Well done! Thanks for the thesis statement. But the problem for those of us then writing about life, or somewhere around it, is that specificity of purpose is a lot harder to come up with. Who knows what I'll do today. Shop for food, fall in love, set my house on fire. Maybe I'll even drive to Atlantic City. Doubtful yes, but you never know for sure.
There are lots of reasons to put things down. Some days I write to vent about something bugging me. Other days I write what I need to hear, what I want to believe. From time to time I write because I know someone is listening. And sometimes I write so I can let go. Release whatever's running around, trap it into definite form and shape, however imperfectly. And part of me secretly wants to build a giant fan base of people who think I'm insanely talented and hilarious and clamor daily for a dose of my vim and vigor.
But that's a delusion I only encourage once in a while.
Really, in a small way, it's just a chance to make a teeny tiny mark on the world, albeit virtual. Part of me doesn't even need anyone to read it. Some of my posts surely were created and immediately forced to reside in a little cave where they live all alone and where only I continue to visit them. And that's ok with me. Because revisiting my periodic outpourings reminds me that I'm not just wandering in field of Now all by my lonesome. It reminds me that I'm connected to the hundreds of other "me"s that are hatched every day. Reminds me not to throw away my former selves in lieu of an idea of what they ought to have been. They had experiences and graduation speech-esque or no, it's important to hold onto them.
So I invite you to continue to share with me. Or don't. I'll keep on plugging away. Just so's I'm leaving a little line in the sand that says, "I am. I have been. And for a while, I will continue to be."
- Traditional Maritime Folk Song
Let's just be honest, writing a blog is a weird exercise in self-indulgence.
It's a fine line. On the one hand you have to have an interesting enough life, or at least enough experiences with the real world, to have something to put down on the keyboard. On the other, get too busy and wrapped up in experience and there's no time to reflect on what you're doing. Is it bad to be so busy with life you don't really have the time to stop and think about it? Do we need to analyze ourselves to try and figure out what we're doing or should we just get off the couch and go do it?
Many successful blogs seem to have a lens through which to focus themselves, movies, politics, a specific interest like say, technology or praying mantises (mantisee? mantesii?) which gives a purpose to the urge to communicate with the faceless masses of the internet. It gives a rhyme and reason to post, a new development in the field, a statement made concerning the topic, the latest release to sort through. You've got something to say and a specific thing to say it upon. Well done! Thanks for the thesis statement. But the problem for those of us then writing about life, or somewhere around it, is that specificity of purpose is a lot harder to come up with. Who knows what I'll do today. Shop for food, fall in love, set my house on fire. Maybe I'll even drive to Atlantic City. Doubtful yes, but you never know for sure.
There are lots of reasons to put things down. Some days I write to vent about something bugging me. Other days I write what I need to hear, what I want to believe. From time to time I write because I know someone is listening. And sometimes I write so I can let go. Release whatever's running around, trap it into definite form and shape, however imperfectly. And part of me secretly wants to build a giant fan base of people who think I'm insanely talented and hilarious and clamor daily for a dose of my vim and vigor.
But that's a delusion I only encourage once in a while.
Really, in a small way, it's just a chance to make a teeny tiny mark on the world, albeit virtual. Part of me doesn't even need anyone to read it. Some of my posts surely were created and immediately forced to reside in a little cave where they live all alone and where only I continue to visit them. And that's ok with me. Because revisiting my periodic outpourings reminds me that I'm not just wandering in field of Now all by my lonesome. It reminds me that I'm connected to the hundreds of other "me"s that are hatched every day. Reminds me not to throw away my former selves in lieu of an idea of what they ought to have been. They had experiences and graduation speech-esque or no, it's important to hold onto them.
So I invite you to continue to share with me. Or don't. I'll keep on plugging away. Just so's I'm leaving a little line in the sand that says, "I am. I have been. And for a while, I will continue to be."
posted by A at 12:31 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home