Why do I blog? Is there a purpose? Where do the ideas come from? What do I give away with each post and what do I get in return? In a cost-benefit analysis, do the returns outweigh the expenditures?I would say that, on average, a typical blog posting takes me about 20 to 30 minutes to prepare. I have often asked myself about the cost. Is it all worth it? Should I put my energies elsewhere? Am I really doing anything good and worthwhile for myself, for others with this effort? I sometimes feel that I am just killing time when I could be doing something, anything. Aren't I just avoiding life by hiding behind my computer screen? . . . However, I'm quite sure that I don't know what that something or anything is at this point in my life. Perhaps my writing is a way to help tread water until a clear purpose emerges.
A small handful of kind folks take the time from their lives to stop by a couple of times each week and leave a comment. I know that I look forward to connecting with them, if only electronically. Are they getting anything out of my posts? Do I sometimes inspire? Do I sometimes make folks think? Do I sometimes make folks smile and ease some degree of tension? Maybe though, I am just adding another item to their daily to-do list? Another burden or chore of something they feel somehow obligated to do they because they know me or because I comment on their blogs?
Herman Melville said "We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results." Perhaps this is an apt description of why I write. Perhaps too, it is simply a message in a bottle of an isolated castaway hoping for rescue.
(Part 2 of 2)