Why Bloggers Blog: Part VI

To Bring Balance to Their Private World

Part VI is the last of “Why Bloggers Blog.” I'd hoped to post it sooner, but Saturday was full of yard work and painting a bedroom, and Sunday had church and a piano recital, followed by some time at the boardwalk and a trip to the train station to pick up a daughter returning from Chicago. The weather was a little breezy but beautiful. I must admit that as I began the workweek, I was a disappointed that I didn't have time to write over the weekend. There was a time, that would not have been true....

I mentioned in Part Five-B that the observations in this final post would be mostly directed at me. Keep in mind that these thoughts are not one-size-fits-all as much as a friendly “if the shoe fits.”

I don't feel like I spend too much time writing. In reality, and that's the key word, I'm a typical guy who enjoys a diversion from work, but I'm also a dad and husband in need of the loved ones who call me by those terms of endearment.

When your kids start warning you in jest about a new type of "lap cancer" caused from having a lap top on your knees all winter while you watch TV with the family... you know something may be out of balance. (Those are my girls there on the left. I do hope we don't discover that laptops cause cancer of the lap.)

When your wife needs some help with something and hears "Just a minute, Honey, I'm right in the middle of a thought" ... it better be a good one because that thought may be your only company for a while. =) I’m just kidding. My wife is very patient. That's her there at the right (in a picture our youngest snapped a couple years ago). She has some of the best judgment and intuition on the planet. When she points out a “concern,” it’s worth noting because she's often RIGHT. Take note. Husbands seldom put such things in writing, but it's a pretty safe bet that we all could.

Don't think I’m just saying that for brownie points, because it’s unlikely that she'll read this post. Her mind is understandably on a certain June wedding. Mine is, too. In fact, knowing my disposition, my increased writing this winter has been a way to "not think" about the life changing year we are sharing as a family.

[Add to all this the fact that in April I accepted an adjunct professorship in a GR University's evening Masters in Education program. It involves one night of teaching a week and some "on-line" instruction. As we've demonstrated here, using the internet for "class discussion" is incredibly useful, but it will accentuate the "perception" that I have a laptop fused to my thighs.]

When I hinted at the subject of this final post in the series, I had no idea that so many people would speak in terms of “addiction." Hearing some of your accounts, I'm glad to be aware of that possible pitfall of this pastime and that once it's recognized, adjustments can be made.

I don't think my mid-life increase in writing is a bad thing, but I do need to find a balance. The title poem of this blog speaks of endless patterns of ink because most of my writing through the years was literally scrawled and re-scrawled on bits of paper filed here and there (like Emily Dickinson). Most of them never quite felt "finished," but this pastime has been the cure for procrastination. I have a much better "write 'til it's finished" record since taking up blogging. This kind of writing adds the risk (the possibility) of actually being "read." I say risk, because let's face it... what if no one reads? What if what you've written doesn't resonate?...

Crop Circles

What if writing
of the kind I do
is but a form of madness,
senility not yet curbed
by an arthritic hand?
What if being lost in thought
is merely wandering in a maze
of corn or waist-high rye
until all my
sterile stomping there
in search of sky
or light or just
a path to where I am...
shows only where I've trod
in patterns
that do not mean
a thing to man…
and little more when seen
by birds... and God?
© Copyright 2006, TK, Patterns of Ink


I enjoy the "neighborhood" aspect of blogging, but writing itself is an outlet for me. We all need outlets. The cool thing about blogging is that it's not an "outlet mall" as much as it is a village of curious little shops where people step in to consider adding some small thing to their life or to hear a story that makes some "antique" worth keeping. Blogging has helped me organize the shop, so to speak, taking things from piles to posts (dusting them off or revising them as needed with 20 or 30 additional years of life experience.) Oh, there’s new stuff, too (like "Wooden Box" parts I and II, and that whole mid-Sixties “When Doubt Came Slowly” string last Christmas), but the newly written pieces somehow fit in with the old. This little shop adds a fulfilling dimension to my life and is profitable in countless ways (though not in the lucrative sense of the word). I suspect that's true for most "writers," bloggers, and owners of antique shops.

Comments are

the little bell that rings

as we step through the door

of the shops we browse.
.

Some time back, my wife tactfully encouraged me to track the patterns of time spent in this pastime. (She enjoys my writing but is understandably concerned about balance and priorities.) So I checked out my archives. They're sparse compared to many. My first post was in October 2004. After that, I was blogging casually a year and a half before receiving my first dozen comments (one or two at a time through the months-- some from “spammers” =). At that pace, it took over two years to reach my 100th post (not that I paid attention to such things until this task), and yet... I saw that I’ve written more than 100 posts in the past 7 months (not counting lots of drafts). Hmmm... my family has a point. Perhaps I need to rethink the "store hours" of this little shop if I want to keep it open over the long haul.

Why the gradual increase in my writing? Well, the first thing was I got a laptop for school work so I didn't have to share the one computer in the house with two college students. Naturally, with the laptop came a wireless router which meant I could work and write from anywhere in the house. I began writing while sitting with the family. They were often studying or reading so I didn't feel bad about that. Then of course, I starting meeting you folks, which made writing more fun than ever. In fact, it is that aspect of blogging that I would miss most. I now have a better understanding of posts like this.

So I'll be adjusting my writing time slightly to keep a balance between a worthy pastime and inadvertently letting time pass me by during some important months here in my home. I've never enjoyed writing more, and I don't see that changing. I have plenty in the hopper to keep Patterns going for a long time. I look forward to finishing them, and to whatever conversation they may bring.

Wow! I just scrolled down this thread of posts. Thanks for being part of this three-week discussion on Why Bloggers Blog. It went places we hadn't planned to go, and kept us a little longer than we planned to stay, but you helped make it an interesting and civil exchange of words that matter.

See you soon on the front porch...