Why Blog?

On the phone yesterday, my Mom told me that she and my brother had had a conversation about why someone would write a blog, or a diary or journal for that matter. Since then I've been thinking about it and this is what I've come up with. As with most endeavours there is more than one reason. I have friends scattered to the winds, friends that I don't do as good a job of keeping in touch with as I ought to, so this is one way for them to keep up with what's going on in my life, should they so desire. As well, I like writing and don't do as much as I'd like to, so by having a blog it forces me to be more disciplined and regular with my writing. Writing is a great way to analyze what is going on inside your head, though I'm not sure how applicable that is here, as I haven't been getting too personal.

On some level though, and this feels most important to me right now, keeping a blog is about having a voice. As my friend Clay says:

"It's like having your own magazine- your own incredibly boring magazine. Maybe it's actually more like a brochure. To me it's amazing though. I've never had a brochure. That's the web for you: a huge never-ending stack of brochures."

I think as individuals we are all pretty powerless and voiceless, so this is an avenue, however meagre and insignificant it may be, for me to say what's going on in my mind, should I so choose. The night I started this blog it was in the middle of the Danish cartoon debacle; I stood and watched baffled as people rioted and died because of some drawings. I just didn't get it, but writing what I did, again however meagre and insignificant, made me feel a little better. Like I'd said what I had to say. I have no illusions that by writing what I'm thinking I'm affecting or changing anything. It doesn't matter so much if anyone reads what I write, though obviously that is what I would like. More importantly for me, my two cents are there for anyone to read; my little brochure is out there in the ether.

So, Mom, Pete, that's why this someone might write a blog.