Here I go....

So now, I can officially claim to be a "Blogger". I can be one of those folks the major media decried as being "no accountability guys in their bedrooms writing in their pajamas". Yeah, the same ones who figured out that a certain Presidential candidate did not necessarily serve honorably in Viet Nam. Or that campaign operative phonied up military reserve documents so badly they were exposed as such pretty easily.

And much to the chagrin of the major media; so much that Ted Koppel suggested that the so-called "Blogosphere" was somehow a "threat to democracy". I submit to you, Mr. Koppel, the "Blogosphere" seems to be a better representation of democracy than what passes for politics today! Politicians are always talking about "grass roots", yet too often when individuals actually work from the basic voting unit, the effort is made to slap them down.

Funny, I didn't intend for this to go out the gate as a political rant, but I guess the stream-of-consciousness approach to blogging sort of takes it where it wants to go. I guess I know what it means when a writer says the story sort of "writes itself". Or takes the author places he didn't realize he would go.

Now, to be sure, I can always go back, even after "publishing" and edit out the whole darn thing. And before I hit "publish", I will look back and see if this whole exercise is worth saving, or simply some sort of Gestaltian rant to get stuff off my mind and on to a place where all can see it.

Which leads me to my original notion for this first post.

What is the point, anyway? Why should I bare my soul for all to see? For the amateur writer, I guess a blog is a good place to start and hone one's "chops". Yet, by the same token, I could write and write and write and write, and not be accountable to any sort of editorial process. And yet, by the same token, who is to say that any editor is indicative of better writing?

As we have seen through the centuries, language changes. We don't use "thee" or "whilst" much anymore, save for Shakespearian productions and traditional churches. We don't hear "groovy" or "far out" either, and they are from last couple of decades. By the same token, a decade or so ago "engine" meant a physical plant providing power to a machine or vehicle. Web was something spiders wove, and no one ever heard the word "blog".

I remember over twenty years ago meeting a "System Architect" and being amazed that his job had nothing to do with physical buildings, but the intricacies of a mainframe computer!

But I return to my question of the point of this whole thing. I can't help but wondering if the idea of blogging grew out of the notion that not only everybody's voice can be heard (First Amendment) but should be heard. And the notion that all of one's life should be worn on one's sleeve.

A generation or more ago, people would keep diaries. Often small books with a useless lock for recording a person's inner most thoughts. Usually the stuff of family comedy and/or drama that little brother stole big sister's diary and trumpeted the contents all over the place. Later, in the self-awareness era, we were encouraged to keep a journal, extending the few lines the small daily diary offered into long, free-form tablet or notebook pages. If one was a student, that journal was the source to go back and draw from to create other writings.

Now we blog. We write down our innermost thoughts and feelings and save them on line for the world to see. As far as I have heard, especially among the younger "myspace" set, very innermost thoughts are shared. So much that parents are a bit concerned, and child predators have a rich mine from which to draw. Yes, there is a downside to being too open...

Well, It is close to an hour I have been beating this keyboard on this entry and I should get on to something else. But I still have a whole lot of opinions to offer up on the subject of blogging, but I will save them for the next time.

Derick