On Blogging

There have been some interesting articles this past year on blogging, as some long-time bloggers begin to reflect upon what they’re doing and why, as well as what it means to them. The best one I’ve read is by Andrew Sullivan called ‘Why I Blog.’ Sullivan, of course, is a political blogger and that is, it seems to me, a very different kind of blogging from what I do here, which is a more personal blog, but much of it I could relate to.

The bloggers have become a clear presence in the world and the tension between political bloggers and political journalists is very much a live issue. About personal blogs, however, much less is said or known. I did read somewhere recently that it is estimated that only 4% of all the many, many millions of blogs out there included a post written within the past four months. Which doesn’t surprise me. Easy to start, hard to keep up. Lots of dead blogs.

But today I noted for the first time a novel (Glover’s Mistake) that features a blogger as its main character. He’s a lonely and timid guy, but in his blog he’s ferocious and fearless and as the plot works its way out, he becomes what the reviewer calls a disaffected blogger, ‘searching not for things to love but a place to put his rage.’

I thought about this quite a bit today because I have certainly had a goodly amount of anger about the state of things over the past decade and change. I’m old, of course, so I’m entitled to become a crank, but I am taking this book review as a reminder that there is much to love out there and, if I am furious about some of the less lovable parts, perhaps good to keep at least some of it to myself.

Yesterday it was cold and rainy; today it is hot and sunny. It’s good to have variety.