Why I blog
I write because I have to; not because I want to. I write because, to me, writing is liking breathing. I do it without thinking about it. I write because i have something to say, and I’m infinitely more articulate using a keyboard or typewriter than I am using my mouth. (There are times when the words come so swiftly to my mind that I suffer verbal strangulation. In school, when I was younger, they told my parents that my failure to articulate was due to a flaw in the part of my brain that controls speech.) Writing is comforting to me. It allows me to formulate my ideas in a relaxed, pressure-free environment. (I can always cross out words and phrases that aren’t quite right and put the proper ones in their place. Try doing that with your tongue!) I write because I view written communication as one of the highest forms of human expression (surpassed only by art and mathematics). Mainly I write for myself.
Writing allows me to fully think through the beliefs and opinions I’ve formed in the course of my lifetime. It’s the tool I use to question the validity of the things that I hear, of the new ideas that come my way, of the edicts that are passed by our political and religious leaders. I use writing the way Socrates used what later came to be known as the Socratic enquiry. Through my words, I poke and prod, searching for flaws and contradictions, for statements that don’t support known facts. I write because I must.
There are times, though, when I have written something that I wish could be retracted. Unlike speech, which can be denied because those utterances cannot be grasped and examined, written words are pebbles on the road of life. They are nuggets that can either be rock-solid support or treacherous footing upon which you may lose your balance and fall. Written words cannot be erased - they can only be explained or defended. They cannot be denied.
I write to enlighten. I write to educate. I write to amuse. But, primarily, I write to communicate. To everyone who reads what I write, I would like to say, "Thank you." Thank you for being an audience, and thank you for taking the time to listen to what I have to say.
