A Diatribe About Blogging (How appropriate.)

Hmmmm.......All ya fellow bloggers and blog-followers, chew on this---This evening, at church, a couple women were talking about how selfish they think blogging is. It's food for thought. I mean, I guess it can be. You know? So, it's time to examine myself (hey, that's selfish, too! Ha ha.) I don't have to justify my blogging to anyone any more than anyone would have to justify writing their memoirs, or penning a Christmas letter to friends. I know that, but it's a topic worth exploring. An unexamined life is not so good, the saying goes. So, a blog can be a lot of different things, can serve various purposes and can be about anyone or anything. It can be an online journal, personal, like a diary but not so private that others reading it would be a horror to you. It can be an update focused on the lives of one's kids for the viewing and reading pleasure of doting grandparents and loving family and friends (as ours became that when we moved 2,500 miles away while pregnant with Wendy!) It can be about baking, about scrapbooking, a forum for venting, advertising for your business. It can be about you only, or you as a couple, or about a loved one in critical care, unable to speak for themselves but nevertheless in need of prayer and support, and in this case, as a mercy for those desperate for information. I love to blog. It's a past-time. I find it worthy of my (granted, little) time and effort because it's a glorified baby book--and I enjoy writing about my children! Where the binding of my baby's albums can stretch only so far, here is where my blog comes in. I get to record, and know that I will remember, the dates of their first this...their last that. I can save it for them to read, and we all know that kids, and adult-kids, often enjoy reading about themselves! This blog is about an ordinary couple of kids who are two parts of an ordinary family. It's nothing extraordinary, but the ability I have to whip out the camera, add pics as illustrations to words I can type so much more fluidly than I could ever write them, is a blessing I am thankful to have! Is my blog selfish? Hmmmm...yes. I indulge myself when I approach that feeling of satisfaction at a post nearly finished, a post about a birthday party complete with all the funnyisms of the day, a post that I can perhaps print and pass out at Wendy's rehearsal dinner. Will everyone read it? Heck, no. It's true that there are folks out there who don't care even slightly about any one's blog, don't feel they're important. They aren't important to them, and that makes sense. But blogs are important to others. I very naturally ask new friends if they have a blog because I enjoy reading blogs! I like clicking on links to blogs belonging to friends of friends! I'm a blog person. I'm not a Facebook person, and folks have gotten irked with me for that, but I choose my outlet. And, people who think blogs are stupid have their outlets too--like talking about blogging in a crowd. Everyone indulges themselves by getting their own personal thoughts and feelings out there--one way or another. It's healthy. It's good. So what. And the gals who think blogging is lame, they'll never know I blogged about this because--they aren't into blogs! So, live and let blog. Oh, and another thought just came to mind--if blogging about a vacation or your latest recipe is selfish, than what would people who think that think of Facebook peeps informing the entire world, more invasively, that they just finished a slice of pizza? Live and let blog, or tweet, or talk. It's all the same.