On Weblogging

Weblogging (sorry--I refuse to use the term "blog") is quite the phenomenon. Anyone can, absolutely for free, post their opinions and writings on the World Wide Web so that anyone on this old earth (and beyond) with Internet access can read their words. As if the Internet was not bloated with enough garbage before, it's now become sort of a Vanity Press Library of Congress, with countless self-published volumes, few of which would have ever been published were not someone else footing the bill for it. I fit that category. I've never been published in a reputable way, save a "Letter to the Editor" here and there. Those don't count, though, as they can also be allowed in print for the sole purpose of making you look stupid for saying such things. However, I don't do this (weblogging) because I think my opinions are weighty and that others would benefit from sitting at my feet and catching these pearls of wisdom on their tongues. I do it because I enjoy it. Xanga gives me a medium for writing for my benefit, yet at the same time puts the things I write out there in case anyone else can miraculously benefit from it. At the minimum, folks can read my posts and say, "Boy, I thought I was a bad writer!"

Actually, I don't think I'm that bad as a writer. I read over some of the things I've written and I, even if no one else does, enjoy reading what I've written. In my earlier years, I enjoyed writing and thought there could be no better existence than writing and having people pay you for it. In all humility, I've read a lot of other people's writing--people who write for a living--and I wonder to myself why I couldn't do that. It seems obvious that everyone who makes good money writing for a living ain't necessarily good at it. But writing for pay is quite a racket to break into, much like professional music. Many people have the technical skill and can string words/notes together in a way that is, technically, correct. The missing component is creativity. Just because something is original, just because you created it, doesn't necessarily mean it is something that others will enjoy reading or listening to.

On the other hand, those that try and fail are, in my opinion, to be lauded over those that either never try or put themselves in a position to criticize those who do try and yet yield less than desirable results. I'm sure I've quoted this before, but if so, it warrants repeating:

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."   ~  Theodore Roosevelt