Just what we need: another blogger

I have often said that writing, no matter how we try to romanticize it by claiming that it is an art form, is really nothing more than an act of desperation and vanity. It is a plea for attention, a prayer to stave off loneliness. The writer begs to be heard, so that he won’t disappear in obscurity. Each writer, either rightfully or swollen with delusions, thinks that what he has to say means something, or more pathetically that his words may help others identify with the world more easily. We writers naively believe that words chained together to form poems, or arguments, or stories will somehow lead to something better than what is already here.

We sit alone in dark rooms, while the music plays and the cat sleeps, and craft sentence after sentence on a torrent of ideas, hoping to penetrate someone, somewhere. So that maybe they will say that they understand us, or they agree with us, or maybe they will say thank you.

The Blogger is an even more deprived, more pompous writer. Because this creature does not even wait till his prose has been crafted. He simply sits and writes about whatever comes to his mind and has the audacity to post it in the world. As if there is room enough for his thoughts. As if anyone needs one more Blogger filling cyber space with his random, useless thoughts about television shows, politics, music or whatever else he deems worthy for that week’s entry.

But what if we take a less cynical approach? What if we think that the amateur Blogger is simply finding a venue that will force him to write? And that maybe sharing these thoughts with anyone willing to read them may prove to give him some kind of redemption? What if we believe that the very act of writing is what is important, because it forces us to think of the world as nothing more than what it forces us to write about it? What if we are English teachers and we talk all day about why writing is important and we want to prove that by actually doing it? What if we tell or students that writing helps us learn how to think? It helps us break down the world and recreate it in a way that makes sense to us? What if we believe that writing is the last form of communication, and that the freedom on the Internet and Blogging may help us connect with ideas we never knew possible? What if we believe in the honesty of the Blog as a venue to connect and share? What if we are tired of cynicism?

I hope this Blog forces me to write. I hope this Blog is read. Other than that I do not expect much from it. There is no theme here. The topics will vary depending on my mood. So welcome to yet another Blogger who thinks that what he has to say is worth your time.