Little Red Blog

Each week, or perhaps most, the Homespun Bloggers host a symposium question for members of the Homespun Bloggers. The questions vary from the significant moral and political issues to the lighthearted, this weeks question may serve both. It comes from Patterico and is as follows:

How has blogging affected your life?

There are several means or avenues of approach that I could use to answer this question. The straightforward means would be to discuss the time I spend blogging or reading blogs, significant, and to discuss the impact of the information, perspective and thought that I’ve come across in blogging, also significant. Another path might be to discuss the progress that blogging has helped me to make in regaining the confidence I once held. Though that is far from relevant to anyone but me, and moreover, the process is far from complete. And that leads to another prospective approach, and the one I’m inclined to utilize.

Blogging is what we, or you the blogger, make of it. When I first timidly began posting, without the aid of a blogging tool or content management system, I immediately felt the relief of having expressed something openly. I found a joy and comfort in being able to once again state that which I believed, and along those lines recognized that I would certainly be affected by that simple act. The process of writing things out, presenting it to others (or none as often was and is the case) and reading the thoughts of many others on similar subject matter would have an impact. It has. My initial pages stated that my reason for blogging were the joy I gained from doing it, the ability to learn from doing it, and the aid it would provide in remembering. All are still valid and all have been realized to a great degree.

Prior to blogging, I had over the four plus years prior fallen far from being connected to anyone but the closest of family and friends, and even there some degree of separation was apparent. No, I will not claim that blogging alone has restored my connection to the world but it is clear in my daily life that it has played a significant role in helping me to reconnect. Men and women I’ve never met, and am not likely to, have contacted me, taken me to task, offered encouragement, and some have become regular correspondents and trusted voices from afar. That alone is a powerful reason for me to continue to blog.

The family and friends I once was unable to connect with now find me more open and at peace with the world than the last four years witnessed. Sure, I’m still concerned, but I’ve found a voice that frees my heart and mind, permitting life (the non-blogging portion at least) to be focused, as it should be – on those I’m with. For that I’m thankful to have the medium, as are those who are perhaps unwittingly benefiting from the release it provides.

Beyond that blogging has helped to restore my confidence in others, and that alone has made it possible for me, even without (perhaps only without) the personal swagger, stature or vanity of my past, to reach out and lend a hand, an ear or a prayer for those near and far. I’ve met bloggers. First it was Karol, who via her blog got me involved in the Senate campaign of Pete Coors, and then more recently I met Hugh Hewitt and several members of the Rocky Mountain Alliance of Bloggers, and most recently several bloggers through the Rocky Mountain Bloggers Bash. Each time I found myself more comfortable, and surprisingly, well received. I'm also blogging at Conserva-Puppies, a member of the Watcher's Council, and as it happens facilitating the weekly Homespun Symposium. I’m not sure if it’ll be next or not, but I’ll soon be at GodBlogCon and I’ve been accepted to lead a session on blogging technology. A bit of a blending of my past and present, and perhaps a chance to give a little back. I truly hope so.

Its funny almost to think of it as giving back, I’ve only blogged for 9 ½ months. Now I write for a couple hours a day, not for the blog, and have hopes that I’ll someday do so for a living, but then don’t we all. And while it remains unlikely, as I’m not much for self-promotion and am unlikely to strike the fancy of society tilting toward paper credentials, cult of personality and exhibitionism, I know that I’m better for the effort.

In the end, blogging has meant much to me, and much of it is beyond what I’m capable of stating in so public a manner. Should we ever meet, and share a few minutes, if you want to know more I’m sure I’ll tell you. And I'll probably ramble just as much as I have here.