Why?

I just finished reading a print article in the November issue of Fast Company magazine in which the author, Seth Godin, says this about Weblogs:

“The typical blog contains uninformed opinion about world events, or overlong posts about the weather or your uncle Bob. The typical blog is narcissistic and often focused on how to get other people to link their blog to your blog, so that both blogs will rank higher in Google searches.”

Yeah, Seth, about that uninformed opinion stuff… Anyway, Seth really just used that as a lead-in to then introduce and describe Joi Ito’s Blog, and how he purportedly uses it for legitimate work. While I disagreed completely with his lead in to this article, his writing on Joi Ito inspired me to log on and check it out. Go ahead, click the link above and go check it out. I’ll wait here.

Back already? Yeah, I really just scanned it myself, but I’m betting that you saw what I saw. It’s an interesting blog, his writing is good, and his subject matter is current events. BUT IT'S NOT ONE FRICKING WIT DIFFERENT FROM HUNDREDS OF OTHER BLOGS I READ! Of course, please remember that this is all my uninformed opinion. OK, I’m over it already, really, but this all provides a lead in for my real purpose behind this entry which is…

Why did I create this weblog? Well, #1, it was not to gain high rankings in a Google search. And while I have an uncle Bob, I don’t think I’ll have too much to write about him. I do have a former (and now also deceased) Uncle Pat whom I could write reams about, but none of that would be very flattering and I won’t use this blog to deface or otherwise harm my family (or, in this case, former family). And I assure you that I’m not writing this blog for narcissistic purposes. In fact, I’m more likely to tell you about the stupid sh*t I do as it is eminently funnier than the good stuff. I know, I still haven’t answered my own question here. I guess I would have to say that this blog exists because I write. Next question.

Why do I write? Ha, ha, very funny. You knew that was coming. If you would have asked me this question 3 or 4 years ago I would have laughed. Because I didn’t write. Not anymore than I had too, anyway. But after a particularly hard break up I started a lot of introspection and I started journaling. Most of these writings took the form of emails to a long lost high school girlfriend. There was no romantic interest there – she was (and still is) happily married with two kids living halfway across the country (even farther now!). So, she was safe, but truly interested and she helped me when I needed it. I told her everything. And I found that in telling her everything, it helped me to understand better what I was feeling and what I believed. I was constantly amazed when I would sit down to write and this stuff would just pour out of my fingertips. Moments later I would be reading it on the screen thinking, “Really? - Is that really what I think/feel/believe?” I tried writing it just for myself, but somehow, if I didn’t share it, if it didn’t see the “light of day”, I didn’t believe it myself. Something about sending it to another person made it more real and made me more honest with myself.

I also started writing more to friends. Interjecting humor into simple emails. I even played with writing short stories (One of which is worthy and will be posted). Then, one day in a phone conversation with another friend, I lamented that I felt like I needed an artistic outlet. And despite the fact that she and I played guitar together (In fact she was the closest thing I ever had to a teacher), she said, “You have your writing. You’re a writer.” I had never considered that before. It took me a week or more of thinking about that conversation to finally admit that, yes, I am a writer. And with a little more practice I might even be half decent. It took slightly longer for me to realize that if she considered my writing artistic, then whatever it was I was doing with a guitar was not. :-)

So… why do I write? Well, one is for practice. I harbor high hopes that one day I might achieve mediocrity. The other is to learn things about myself and my worldview. Making my writing public, bringing it into the light of day, makes it more honest. Hence this blog. The tagline at the top of this site is “Explorations of the world around us through writing…”

p.s. The “…” at the end of the tagline leaves me open to amend, modify and expand this purpose at will. Come to think of it, so does the name in the url…
p.s.s. My guitar playing has gotten better, but I still don't think anyone would describe it as artistic.
p.s.s.s. If you think that last ps was sorta' narcissistic of me, the see the ps prior to it.