I Am Therefore I Blog

My early blogging efforts, pre-internet, pre-lunar landing, involved a reel-to-reel tape recorder. I happily devoted hours to capturing songs, stories, Bible memory verses and other expressions of my very small world, to be played back for admiring family and friends. (Well, my mother was enthusiastic, anyhow. An older sibling or two may have yawned and recalled the urgency of homework or dishwashing.)

At age 3 I composed a song including the phrase, “many, many missionaries, going on furlough” – clearly the big news of my day.

Much later, my Georgia family praised my renown as correspondent. Unfortunately, my missives from Tokyo had so much detail I would be exhausted for a year or two before writing another. A fault I still carry today.

But blogging is different; it has its own discipline built in to motivate regular posting. Letters go off in the mail and are never seen again; blog posts remain staring at one, until one writes something new to fill the spot.

They say women must utter roughly twice the number of words as men in a day, in order to achieve emotional resolution. (Some say this is because men don’t listen and women must say everything twice. I do not say this or I would be swiftly corrected, as the fault lies in the opposite direction in my household.) However, I know I must speak or write a significant amount each day or I feel I have not fully lived.

Sometimes I put Mitch to sleep, particularly if I am really scraping the topic barrel to use up those last few thousand words.

I blog because I have a great many opinions and feel the world is entitled to share the enlightenment. But I cringe at the thought of boorish recitations to captive audiences (except of course when I am giving hour-long benefits orientations) so like any good flights of fancy attendant, may I direct your attention to the small X in the upper right corner of your screen. If at any time while reading my blog you feel bored, first wait a second and see if a little yellow oxygen mask pops out of the screen. Failing that, do feel free to exit in mid-flight. Assuming your parachute opens, you can always check my blog another day. Or not. You’re the customer, you decide.

Finally, I blog because I would like to be published someday. Second for personal fulfillment, first because my family needs the money (did I mention we both work for non-profits?) I want to get some thoughts out there, see what people want to read, what makes them yawn, what prompts response. Hone my writing, better develop my choice of topic. Then when I think I have something close enough to ready . . .

Why do you blog?