Was it as good for you as it was for me???
It was neither a whim nor a rapid decision for me to enter the Blog Zone. While not truly an obsessive personality, certain things can become addictive - like chocolate, prowling the net, a favorite ratty yet snuggly bathrobe, sushi, and forming opinions - so the suspicion of addiction to blogging was real, as was the firm knowledge that time to blog would be a major problem. Ergo, it's a conflicted activity.
There are times when facing a blank blog 'page' prior to making the first 'pen' stroke that I curse my decision to sally forth. I search the alley ways of my brain and the crevices of my sensibilities for suitable topics to release into the blue nowhere of cyberspace, never knowing who will see my written thoughts, read them, digest them, or react to them...if anyone does.
So far, I have found no satisfactory answer to my question of why I blog and few appropriate metaphoric inspirations. The closest I've come is to admit that this frenzy of spewing words is a form of mental masturbation. Unfortunately, rather than causing my creative juices to flow, it makes me long for the figurative post coital (or post cyber) cigarette while reflecting on a sweat drenched dream lover that I would demand lay on the wet spot.
The blog world is a microcosm of reality, the variety and quality of blogs well matched to the variety and quality of a world of humanity. Strangely, I cannot equate blogging with keeping a diary or journal. Anything that intimate dictates good paper and real ink, particularly for those future times nostalgia demands one revisit such entries, yet others don't seem at all bothered by my standard in this regard. There are diaries, journals, scrapbooks, and photo albums in blog world. Perhaps it is enough that some internal or even external need is being met for these folks.
There are also the blogs from professional critics and journalists, from aspiring writers and real writers and published writers. There are blogs from wanna be comics and comedians, from essayists, from poets, from truly introspective observers and commentators. There are also the ranters and ravers, the people with a 'bone to pick' but no dog to throw it to, the dissatisfied and disaffected, the young people who are too busy musing and complaining about the state of their psyches to actively seek quality in their lives. Political blogs are legion, as are those designed specifically to titillate and shock, or advertise and market. There are blogs meant to offer support and counsel, to assure those with similar afflictions or limitations that they are not alone nor without resources at their disposal. And there are the blogs that cannot be categorized, which is perhaps where my own offerings fit.
It is impossible to ferret out the motivation others bring to their efforts at blogging. It is almost as difficult to discern my own reasons, particularly when the presence of an audience or 'reader over my shoulder' is questionable. Yet, if I had to provide a reason it would be that I'd like anyone who reads my cyber scribbles to think about what was said; to think about it objectively, critically, and from a different point of view. It is not my intent to make anyone else see the world as I do or adhere to or agree with my opinions. It is enough if they simply see the world through a new prism, take what are only suggestions or benchmarks along the road to reason and form opinions and ways of thinking that are unique to themselves.
Thinking sufficiently, broadly, introspectively, creatively is not an easy endeavor. Perceptions are too often things others have forced on us when we were too young, naive, or uninformed to perceive alone. The idea of cognitive thinking or lateral thinking or decision tree thinking is not an inborn ability. It must be learned and it must be practiced. It cannot be learned when all that is ingested is commercial pap or traditional acceptance or limited subjects or what mommy and daddy believed or what talk radio blares over the airways.
It is unfortunate that the word 'discrimination' has been so firmly entrenched in our jargonistic lives as being tied to the bigotry of racism, because when thinking, it is discrimination that is required to sort through all the information and misinformation floating around us. One must develop the ability to discriminate between truth and falsehood, between good taste and ostentation or bawdiness, between ideas that are basic and valuable to our culture and our future and ideas that are empty, prejudiced, wrong or simply stupid. And thinking must be put into context. It is not sufficient to think only 'in the moment.' It is essential to look into history, whether of a week ago or centuries ago, to see the context of that time - the society, the politics, the economic environment, the players and the goals - and see the results as compared to the same elements and projected results of now.
As the old adage goes, a wise man (or woman) does not make the same mistake today as was made yesterday. Thinking forces you to walk attentively over new terrain with an eye ahead and another behind. Walking only in circles with downcast eyes simply creates a very deep rut, and while you may find pebbles or pennies on the ground, you'll never see the birds that sing, the sun that shines, or the rainbow after a storm.
It was neither a whim nor a rapid decision for me to enter the Blog Zone. While not truly an obsessive personality, certain things can become addictive - like chocolate, prowling the net, a favorite ratty yet snuggly bathrobe, sushi, and forming opinions - so the suspicion of addiction to blogging was real, as was the firm knowledge that time to blog would be a major problem. Ergo, it's a conflicted activity.
There are times when facing a blank blog 'page' prior to making the first 'pen' stroke that I curse my decision to sally forth. I search the alley ways of my brain and the crevices of my sensibilities for suitable topics to release into the blue nowhere of cyberspace, never knowing who will see my written thoughts, read them, digest them, or react to them...if anyone does.
So far, I have found no satisfactory answer to my question of why I blog and few appropriate metaphoric inspirations. The closest I've come is to admit that this frenzy of spewing words is a form of mental masturbation. Unfortunately, rather than causing my creative juices to flow, it makes me long for the figurative post coital (or post cyber) cigarette while reflecting on a sweat drenched dream lover that I would demand lay on the wet spot.
The blog world is a microcosm of reality, the variety and quality of blogs well matched to the variety and quality of a world of humanity. Strangely, I cannot equate blogging with keeping a diary or journal. Anything that intimate dictates good paper and real ink, particularly for those future times nostalgia demands one revisit such entries, yet others don't seem at all bothered by my standard in this regard. There are diaries, journals, scrapbooks, and photo albums in blog world. Perhaps it is enough that some internal or even external need is being met for these folks.
There are also the blogs from professional critics and journalists, from aspiring writers and real writers and published writers. There are blogs from wanna be comics and comedians, from essayists, from poets, from truly introspective observers and commentators. There are also the ranters and ravers, the people with a 'bone to pick' but no dog to throw it to, the dissatisfied and disaffected, the young people who are too busy musing and complaining about the state of their psyches to actively seek quality in their lives. Political blogs are legion, as are those designed specifically to titillate and shock, or advertise and market. There are blogs meant to offer support and counsel, to assure those with similar afflictions or limitations that they are not alone nor without resources at their disposal. And there are the blogs that cannot be categorized, which is perhaps where my own offerings fit.
It is impossible to ferret out the motivation others bring to their efforts at blogging. It is almost as difficult to discern my own reasons, particularly when the presence of an audience or 'reader over my shoulder' is questionable. Yet, if I had to provide a reason it would be that I'd like anyone who reads my cyber scribbles to think about what was said; to think about it objectively, critically, and from a different point of view. It is not my intent to make anyone else see the world as I do or adhere to or agree with my opinions. It is enough if they simply see the world through a new prism, take what are only suggestions or benchmarks along the road to reason and form opinions and ways of thinking that are unique to themselves.
Thinking sufficiently, broadly, introspectively, creatively is not an easy endeavor. Perceptions are too often things others have forced on us when we were too young, naive, or uninformed to perceive alone. The idea of cognitive thinking or lateral thinking or decision tree thinking is not an inborn ability. It must be learned and it must be practiced. It cannot be learned when all that is ingested is commercial pap or traditional acceptance or limited subjects or what mommy and daddy believed or what talk radio blares over the airways.
It is unfortunate that the word 'discrimination' has been so firmly entrenched in our jargonistic lives as being tied to the bigotry of racism, because when thinking, it is discrimination that is required to sort through all the information and misinformation floating around us. One must develop the ability to discriminate between truth and falsehood, between good taste and ostentation or bawdiness, between ideas that are basic and valuable to our culture and our future and ideas that are empty, prejudiced, wrong or simply stupid. And thinking must be put into context. It is not sufficient to think only 'in the moment.' It is essential to look into history, whether of a week ago or centuries ago, to see the context of that time - the society, the politics, the economic environment, the players and the goals - and see the results as compared to the same elements and projected results of now.
As the old adage goes, a wise man (or woman) does not make the same mistake today as was made yesterday. Thinking forces you to walk attentively over new terrain with an eye ahead and another behind. Walking only in circles with downcast eyes simply creates a very deep rut, and while you may find pebbles or pennies on the ground, you'll never see the birds that sing, the sun that shines, or the rainbow after a storm.
posted by kaz at 6:03 PM
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