Feeling Awfully Guilty: A Meditation On (not) Blogging

When you want to start every blog post with "I'm sorry I haven't posted lately!" then you know you're not a great blogger.

Lately I've been I asking myself: why blog?

I mean, really. What's the point of telling the world what I'm doing, what I'm seeing, what I'm thinking? I don't know what compels me to write. Is it vanity or pride? Is it my uncontainable joy for life and sharing its delights with others? Is it an efforts to not to be forgotten by generations to come?

I suppose never asked myself those questions before. In hindsight, I liked recording my travels and having an audience to share them with. I always was the type of yahoo that would write three page letters to friends about my trips and adventures, fully recognizing most people would never read them. But those letters clearly served a purpose for me.

Yet I have been steadily losing blogging steam. Of course I have some theories about why I'm writing less often over the last weeks--errr...months...ok, well, years! I use facebook a lot more than I ever did before. I post my pictures there, and I write short updates in 140 characters or less. I don't know who reads this blog, which is also a bit strange. I know some people who do (Hi Mom! Hi Ben's Mom!) and I like writing for them. As I get older, maybe I'm more concerned about online privacy.

I enjoy blogging while away from home. Over the last few months in SF, I didn't (and tried my best not to) leave California. But I've got a lot of trips slated over the next few months, so we'll see what happens.

The funny thing is I love reading blogs. Some are ones related to work and to my sector and career, but others are just people I know, and some are even people I don't know well or even at all. I think the blogs I really like have a theme--some reason for existence. And they are generally beautiful and well designed.

I don't know the future of my blog. I don't have plans to quit, nor do I have plans to go wild with it. But I'll keep it open as a space to reflect and document, and see what purpose it holds. I leave town on Saturday for three weeks, and that's just the start of a travel-filled spring!