metablog

Blogging is stupid. There, I said it. I am guilty of doing it, but that doesn't stop me from seeing the issues involved. The thing is, if you have a blog, you are probably the kind of person who has had journals...maybe you were good at keeping it up, or maybe you started a new one every year and only wrote three entries before giving it up again. You feel like you want to remember life, to document it. Or you feel like you have something to say. Like you are interesting, or wish to be. But in any case, blogging means taking your journals or essays into the public forum. You want people to read what you have written.

I get frustrated that I don't have many readers. I know it's probably because what I have to say isn't grabbing people, isn't new or intersting enough to stand out. But I hold on to the hope that there are other reasons, so I go out into the blogosphere and try to read others, and maybe connect with them, in the hopes that they will turn and read me too. So far, not so good, but I'll keep plugging. Because even though the part of me with loe self-esteem says that no one cares, the secretly overconfident part of me says that someone will aprreciate me. (Also, I cut myself off at the knees by being afraid that those who are too close to me will find it and know too much, but that's a neurosis for another day).

The point is, people who blog want to be read, plain and simple. But the reason blogging is stupid is that then some people turn around and decide that they don't want to be disagreed with. Yes, please read and appreciate my contribution to the world, but don't let on that I'm not the best thing since sliced bread! Don't say anything unless you have something nice to say!

At this point I'd like to pause to say that it probably looks like I am harping on the issue from yesterday. And I suppose that in a way I am. But after spending some time thinking about why I blew up yesterday, I realized that it wasn't really about that one blogger, or at least not totally. This has happened to me before, with my frenemy, B. Once upon a time, he said horrible things about me and about A in his blog. And I responded vehemently. And then got angry that I had the nerve to respond to what he said in his own private blog. Really?

Like I've said before, I believe that people have the right to an opinion, and to voice that opinion. But I also have the right to express mine, and to tell you why I think yours is wrong. And let's not sugarcoat things. It's okay for me to think you are wrong, and vice versa. Just because I think you have a right to an opinion doesn't mean I have to give your opinion any creedence. I might, if you do a good job of arguing your point, but chances are slim.

So the point is that you have the right to write, and I have the right to respond. Love it or hate it, that's how it is. If you don't want to continue from that point, you have the right of ignoring my response. Or you could delete any comments you don't want to deal with. It is, after all, your blog, and I am fine with you dictating the flow of traffic. But please, don't put yourself out there and ask for attention, and then whine because you don't like the attention that you got. I feel like that is just lying to yourself about your real motivation to blog in the first place.