I was hoping to write about this later, much later - after a month of blogging or so; after I was comfortable with the medium, with the strain of unlimited potential, and with the possibility that these entries could possibly be no more than notes to myself. Now, thus far, I am not comfortable with any of the conditions. Yet, I think I must articulate this basic nagging thought. Why do people blog? Why am I blogging?
Now, enumerative lists are boring so I won’t go into them. But from what I have observed, people blog because of this very strong, underlying sentiment best drawled out by Garfield, ‘Everyone is entitled to my opinion.’
Of course, when it comes to strong, underlying sentiments, we’d prefer to have them articulated by Nietzsche or Kant or other suitably tortured soul (a plump ginger cat not really fitting in here) – but I think it’s a very poignant truth.
Why do I go through what I go through? Why do I live the way I do? What makes my different from yours? What makes me same as you?
We prop up our worlds, our little complete universes with their own seasons and laws – why? I think we do that to reach out. It’s like that Zen question – if a tree fell in a forest and there was no one to hear it, would there still be a sound? Similarly, if I had all these spiffy ‘Aha’ moments while listening to Madonna or crossing a street, would it count as realizations unless some stranger disconnected from my world nods in agreement?
Blogging is, I think, de rigueur for all those who have stood in front of a cliff and hollered expecting to hear an echo. Every entry into a blog, I think, is a shout into the void. Every nod or furrowed response to that entry is an echo.
Now, who could resist that?
Comments
Actually, blogging for me, believe or not has been therapeutic. It helps me sort out my emotions, feelings, ideas that only when composed then read would emerge. I used to have lots of rtf files on my pc with the same thing I write in my blog but then having a blogger is alot more organized and accessible anytime, anywhere - so long as you have access to a computer that has connection to the internet. it's a very convenient online journal that can be a photo album at the same time.
But why go online and announce to the whole world about it huh? Probably because, like you said, I wanted to reach out.
I guess I kinda hope that people who read my entries will have at least a grasp of what kind of person I am and thus they can either be my friend or leave me alone, two things that are better than their wanting to change me according to their image.
To sum it all up, "Enter my world, judge me if you will, but leave me be, cause I cannot be someone else other than me."