Some Thoughts on Blogging and Friendship

The conventional wisdom regarding how to be a "successful" blogger (by "successful" is meant having a readership that will grow, I suppose...one can read such advice on that genre of blogs that tell you how to successfully blog....) seems to be that one should more or less narrowly focus one's blog writing in a "niche," and that one should post on a regular schedule to maintain interest.

So that means that on both of those counts this blog will not be "successful." And I couldn't care less anymore.

My interests are simply too broad. On this blog you may read musings about nature, wilderness, my passionate environmentalism may leak out and there may be the odd post on sustainability. There will be posts about bushcraft, and "primitive" and "ancestral" ways. I may occasionally lapse into a musing about certain aspects of history or theology (my university degrees are in these disciplines). There will most certainly be poetry, occasionally my own and most often those of favorite poets. And underlying it all will be a "spirituality" (for lack of a better term) informed by intimate connection with the natural world, non-theistic, and with discernible leanings towards Taoist and Buddhist ways of thought, although I officially claim neither of those labels. (Actually, I attempt to live with a minimum of "labels"--in the identity sense--of whatever kind.) All of these thing I've written in this paragraph are the things that are most "me," and that I would care to write about and think that occasionally I might have something worthwhile to say about.

Furthermore, I don't plan on posting on any particular schedule. I have been there and done that and I don't plan on doing it anymore.

Since early 2004 I have had several blogs. Looking back, each of them, I suppose, has chronicled a somewhat different "phase" in my continuing personal saga. A couple of them in fact became quite "successful" (but relative to...what?) and had a growing readership. The few of you reading this who have known me from any of my blogs have read me speak of my sometimes conflicted relationship with this medium. As what follows then is probably ground you've heard covered before, you may be excused from reading any further in this post. :)

When some criticize personal blogs as being narcissistic, I've seen that very often they have a valid point. I'll never be one of those bloggers who for all intents and purposes might as well be puking on you...seemingly exposing their every thought without regard for its possible unripeness, unseemliness, or downright inappropriateness. Folks, there's stuff we just don't need to know about each other and things that are better left not puked into cyberspace whole cloth.... Some personal blogging can seem to approach a sort of mental/emotional "full frontal nudity" if you will....

The problem is...or seems to be...and this is one reason for closing down previous blogs...that the posts which would generate the most commentary and what I'll call "readership spikes" in the stats invariably seemed to be those which most approached the sort of mental/emotional "full frontal nudity" that I have described in the previous paragraph. Because they are "personal" and people feel like they can "connect" with them, I'm told....

So why do I blog? Why did I ever start blogging? And why am I here yet again starting another blog? The answers are pretty direct and simple actually.

I started blogging because I wished to make some connections with likeminded folks. Blogging is good for that, and I still cherish connections that I have made through blogging which have blossomed into friendships. Sadly, however, as my journey has continued, and views and trajectories have changed, some connections made are broken or fade away.... But that is no different than the rest of life, is it? And so we walk on...and even as we "lose" some, we meet new folks of like mind and heart, that new mind and heart that is now ours...and new connections are formed. The truest friends of one's life are those few...they will be rare, just a handful, if that...who come to know us, love us, and stay by us across the whole journey of our lives.

I am here humbly blogging again with no pretensions nor expectations for the following reasons:

1. Occasionally I feel like I have something worthwhile to say for those who care to listen to it; they may only be a few.

2. There are some who have encouraged me to begin again, some who have indicated an interest, for whatever reasons, to continue to follow my thoughts and my journey as expressed in this medium.

And that's it.

Peace

(Updated on 19 December 2008)