Friday, July 20, 2007

Blogging is Life

This blogging thing often boggles my mind... why would some stranger find his/her way to our blog and actually read it. I understand why our family and friends read... to keep updated. This is the purpose of our blog in the first place. But, why, would a perfect stranger navigate here and read?? Is there not a better way to fill a day?

True confession time... there are a few blogs that I absolutely love. I have them set up as feeds and I get very excited in reading what is written. Often, I find nuggets of depth and truth amongst them and I feel like I've found a like-minded soul in the blogosphere.

But blogging as a whole... isn't it a bit (or a bunch) narcissistic? To believe that one's writing is somehow 'worthy of being read by the masses' strikes me as awfully self-focused. To go to the trouble of setting up a blog (even though it is free!) and to post daily, is it merely just another way to feed our starving egos?

Before you bloggers throw over-ripe produce my way, I want to admit that I'm just as guilty. I love to hear of my friends reading my blog... I love to know that I haven't left anyone out in sharing our experiences. But, the bottom line is, why do I think anyone is really that interested?

Another thing to ponder... is the success of blogging another example of a society that has pulled inward? Are we more comfortable blogging than speaking to people face-to-face? Is it easier to be vulnerable when we know that we don't have to visually respond to the reader's reaction?

My Dad would answer a resounding 'yes' to the questions laid out above. I've explained it to him in another way... it is like old-fashioned letter writing... except often the letter is not written in return. Maybe not a great way to explain it, but it works for me to justify my time spent.

On the other hand, we have met several cyber-foster parent friends through this endeavor. Yes, God works in the blog world, too. He must have some bizarre purpose for this blogging thing, but couldn't we have named it something else??

Just something to chew on this Friday afternoon. Oh, and for you Blog babies, I'm going to post about 'comments' and how to do it... I want your voices to be heard, friends! And since I can't shout them in the public square, this little space of bandwidth will have to do.

Tune in next time, for an update on All My Children (Budding Author, Little Mommy, Little Boy Blue, Prince Caspian and the newest addition to our family, Gloria the goat)... we don't just adopt children out here in the boonies. Ya'll come back, ya hear!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

From a brand new (as of yesterday) blogging Christian foster parent I'm glad to see others with similar interests...and I tend to agree that this blogging thing seems to be a fairly self centered endeavor.

Laura said...

David -

Thank you for reading... I tried the link to your name and, somehow, cannot get to your blog. Please post it again... we are excited to hear the story of another foster family in action!

Laura

Clay W. Ginn said...

For someone like me who hopes to one day be a (paid) writer, my blog exists to build some kind of portfolio to get things out there. My hope is that in reading through some of my thoughts, others might feel challenged to go farther. I've been writing on my site in various forms since 2000, and when I get responses they tend to be positive.

Or, I could be an egotistical jerk. That could be why I include the pretentious "W" in my name.