Monday, September 13, 2004

Why Do I Blog?

Laziness.  Pure laziness.  I love the ease and simplicity of writing an email and having it appear on my blog with no HTML coding or other effort required on my part - Voila! I wish I had the time to learn HTML and other web stuff but if I did, I'd probably be wasting a lot more time than I already do!

I just checked the stupid site meter for my blog and I see I had one whole visitor last week!  Wow!  (I don't even know why I signed up for that thing except that I like to try out free gimmicks).  But that's okay, because I'm really not doing this for anyone but me.  I like the accountability of blogging though.  The potential for someone else to read this keeps me accountable in what I write and how I say it.  I guess there is a place for brain dumps, but I don't want to get in the habit of just spilling out all my negative frustrations.  That's why I choose to blog rather than just keep a private journal.

There's a downside to blogging though.  A few of them in fact.  One is the temptation to waste a lot of time reading other people's blogs.  The other is when a blog site I read regularly just vanishes.  Maybe it's human nature, or maybe it has to do with being a Christian but there's a tendency to "meet" people in cyberspace and bond with them.  So it's kind of sad when someone just quits blogging with little or no notice.  The cyber world provides the means to keep people at arm's length - much like many churches today, where we can go and smile and look like everything's alright while inside we're being torn apart.  I guess it's just the nature of the beast but I hate it!  Anyways, one of my favorite bloggers just disappeared - hope she reads this and knows she's in my prayers!

 

3 comments:

Donna said...

Dianne, you'll be glad you have the sitemeter when things start picking up. You'll be able to see how far you've come. When I started blogging last November I had about 6 people read regularly, but I was over at Life With Christ which lists new posts.

Keep at it! I'll try not to disappear on you again ;o)

Rick said...

nice site - and honestly, the blogs i like to read are written by folks who write for themselves. i can't get into the agenda-driven sites. so i am right there with you - writing for myself, too, and wondering who in the world would want to read along :)

Cheryl Wright said...

Hi Dianne,

Just popping in to comment on the church being a place "where we can go and smile and look like everything's all right while inside we're being torn apart."

A few years ago I began making a concerted effort to stop answering the questions, "How are you?" and "How was your week? with the automatic, false and non-committal answer, "fine," or "All right."

When I reply with more truthful answers, please are taken aback. I guess they don't expect that kind of response. Maybe, they don't even want it.

Sometimes I get discouraged by their reactions, but I am acting on a conviction the Holy Spirit put in my heart. I continue to be honest and open in my response to the questions.

Naturally, I am cautious about how much of my life I share and with whom. Nevertheless, no longer do I engage in the mindless greetings and responses that the church has grown accustomed to and that allow us to say we are brethren while we live like we're strangers.