The Rationale of the Muse

So, you submit to the peer pressure and become a “blogger.” Unbeknownst to you, the seemingly care free world of internet posting is not some random word spatter that can be tossed up willy-nilly like a kid's gyroscope painting. No, now there are people out there READING your posts, discussing it with their friends, commenting where the whole world can see (my world is like 3 people, but still) and suddenly, your words are under a microscope and you find yourself fretting over the content, the style or the font. “Am I funny enough?” “Am I well read enough not to sound like a total mouth breather?” “Does what I say make any sense to anyone BUT me?”

Ahhh …the angst of Blogging.

You once scorned the frivolousness of blogs, and dismissed them as meaningless chatter by under motivated 20 somethings whose only aspirations are to date celebrities, and get drunk and famous simultaneously. But now YOU are a blogger and you find yourself trying to birth great prose, as though all civilization hangs in the balance. Perspective is a funny thing isn’t it?

And then there are the "Topic Issues." What should I write? What shouldn't I? What is worth saying?

For some, the topic problems center around not wanting to hurt those around us, so we don’t chronicle our latest break ups or break downs, the fight with our mom or the scorn of our children. We fail to write about those things out of a sense of compassion and protection. We don’t want to hurt those we love, even in the quest for Blog-fame.

For others, like me, the greater fear is that something that I say will somehow be tangled and twisted and used against me by those who wish me at the very least ill, if not actual harm. And before you wave that off as an over active allegory, well, I wish that were an allegory. But some people are just controlling like that. (All you Ted Bundy and Charles Manson types take note, we ARE aware of your ways, and the game is up.)

But looking at those two reasons for hesitation, those blocks to blogging, I would have to counsel the blogger to write on, even against those impediments. Write what you feel, put it out there. Take the time to craft it into a piece of work that speaks about your place in time, what you see, what you believe. If you hurt, write it out. Don’t hide your pain. If you love, write it. As you ponder, consider and tell tales, speak the truths you have seen, and allow them to be heard.

At least, that is my advice to myself. Not to hold back for fear of harm. But to celebrate what I see and think and love. And blog it, baby.