Searching for the Middle
As I opened my blog just now, I was confronted with the fact that I haven’t blogged since February. I knew it had been awhile, but I didn’t want to realize it had been quite that long.
Why haven’t I been writing? Well, I’ve been thinking. And thinking about writing. But I haven’t felt ready to commit anything to cyberspace.
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around what blogs mean for discourse. I am seeing changes in the interactions with my LIBS101 students because of the course blog. And strangely, I am seeing changes in my own mental discourse because of this blog. I see things, and read things, and think about writing about these things. But I am still caught up in the idea that what I write must be perfect. It must represent a fully formed thought. And not much is fully formed for me right now.
Perhaps I should treat this blog more like a conversation than a finished piece. For those of you who know me in person, you know that I love conversations. I am a talker. And I think through things by talking. But most of my writing, other than bad teenage attempts at poetry and late-night dear diary rants, have been quite formal. I struggle for the perfect word, the perfect turn of a phrase, the perfect transitions. Things I never, ever do in speaking. I tend towards little self-censoring when I speak (again, those of you who know me in person know this - I have sputtered out some doozies in my time). When talking, when conversing, I am happy to just let things flow. Perhaps blogging requires reaching some happy medium - a little conversation and a little revision?
So, dear readers, bear with me as I work through all of this. I am sure the answer is somewhere between a blog post every three months and daily streams of consciousness. While I tend never to be a moderate, I’m searching for the middle. Hope to see you there.
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April 7th, 2008 at 7:26 am
I hope blogging insn’t about perfection, because I would be done! I always think of it as a way to put those ideas out there, and see what happens. i myself have been amazed with how many people I have collaborated with as a result. And I have made some very good friends in the process. But I think the reason for blogging is different for everyone, but the end result might often be the same. Once you get into it you often write more than you would otherwise, albeit differently, and you get access to people’s ideas that you might not have before. The trick is, you spend a lot more time online checking your blog
April 8th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Thanks for the thoughts Jim. Its still a little daunting to me to “put those ideas out there, and see what happens.” Fear 2.0 anyone? But I am sure that the collaborative rewards end up outweighing the personal fears.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Yes, they do–but there have been certain times, now and then, where my “contents are under pressure” and for some reason I feel reluctant to post. I’m not sure it’s fear, exactly, as I’ve been blogging for four years and put a ton of stuff out there. Or if it is fear, perhaps it’s fear of what I know will want to come out when I start to write. Hard to say. But in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make … and blogging spreads the love more than any other form of discourse I’ve discovered. Even more than Twitter!
See ya in the middle.
April 26th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Hi! I was just wondering about my grade for the articles posts for the pathfinder project. You commented and said good job, but the grade was not good.