On blogging

Since I’ve finally broken down and gotten a blog (at least it’s not a myspace account!) it’s occurred to me to wonder why they’re so popular. Why do so many people need blogs?

Why do I need one?

In the movie Shadowlands, C.S. Lewis (among others) says, “We read to know we’re not alone.” Perhaps we write for the same reason. We can’t really ever know anyone the way they know themselves. And no one can ever truly know us. But in writing we can connect a little, find a little mutual understanding.

Maybe we write in order to see, in a world where we’re too often driving blind. We throw our thoughts and feelings out into the world—and the Web—as a kind of echolocation, and we steer through life’s uncertainties by the responses we get.

Or maybe we write because it’s just plain cathartic. Even if no one else will ever see what we write, letting it all out is a kind of release, one that we sorely need sometimes.

Maybe it’s all these things. Or maybe none. It could be that all this is nothing more than words lined up in rows.

But if I believed that, I wouldn't be blogging.