My next meme will be “name five reasons why you respond to memes”

Robert Hruzek threw YAM at me. Yet Another Meme: five reasons why I blog. It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote on this topic, but not wanting to leave Robert out in the dessert with the vultures circling overhead, I’ll gladly lead him to the oasis of insight by shooting my virtual mouth off one more time. Besides, Robert’s post was much better organized than mine, and might help me to sort out my own motivations a little better.

Vanity. There, I said it. Yes, I like to be the center of attention. How do you know when you’re vain? When finding out that you have 108 subscribers when you thought you had only about 50 gives you such a high that you shouldn’t operate heavy machinery. When you wake up in the middle of the night and turn to your wife and say, “Honey did I tell you that I have 108 subscribers?” And she responds, “for about the 109th time — now go back to sleep!” Carly Simon wrote the song about me, in advance. I wonder if she’s a subscriber?

Thinking out loud. I think about a lot of different things all the time. But before blogging, I’d get these half-formed, untested ideas stuck in my head and adopt them as working theories. I’d kind of test them out as relevant experiences presented themselves, but it could take years for them to find validation or refutation. Writing them down for all the world (at least 108 people!) to see, makes you think them through, and consider them more deeply. This brings other associations into play as well, which leads to new ideas. The whole process of thinking about things accelerates.

Making friends. Robert used the word “community”, a word that for me bears tarnished connotations thanks to certain past neighbors in meatspace. In blogs I can pick my neighbors better. I find people who have similar interests — and sometimes I find interest in people who differ from me greatly. Blogs have introduced me to some of the most intriguing and diverse people I know. I can converse with them, but I can leave the conversation when I choose. And I don’t have to argue about property lines or who pays for the fence. It’s an easy friendship.

Improving my writing. I’ve always loved to write, and my blog serves as a writing playground. I’m not under any deadline. The pressure’s off, so I can experiment. It doesn’t have to be that good, but having an audience (of at least 108!) gets me more focused than just sitting down with a diary. More importantly, it gets me to practice writing daily — which, as Robert notes, helps you to develop your “voice”.

The adventure. Sounds trite, huh? But for me, making this blog worthwhile requires some risk. What do I risk? I decided that the main mission of this blog is self-discovery. Getting real. Coming out of hiding. In revealing my thoughts to (at least 108! did I mention?) readers, I have to face those thoughts myself. Before I push the Publish button, I ask myself “Is that really what I think? Is that really who I am? Or am I trying to present an image of myself that I’d like people to see?” I won’t say that I’m always successful in demanding 100% honesty of myself, but I’m getting better at it. And that practice is bleeding over into the rest of my life as well. I’m more up front with my wife, my kids, my clients, and my friends. Not to get all psychoanalytic on you, but I think I hid a lot of myself because I was afraid that who I really am wouldn’t stand up to the image people had of me. But it’s better to be an imperfect human than a golden image. It’s better to laugh than to lord. What’s really weird is that, having exposed my flaws, I no longer feel threatened by them. After all, they’re great blog fodder.

Now for five people to tag. This is always the hardest part of these memes for me, because I hate to leave anyone out. So consider this an open invitation to respond, whether I name you or not. But I have reasons for the five I’ll name here. Maybe that will help them form their response:

1. Kent – because you’ve been wrestling this topic for quite some time.
2. Shelley – because you dropped BurningBird, then came back, and then shuffled your sites.
3. Paul – because you recently dropped the alias and shifted focus.
4. Alice – I’m sure your response would be something unique.
5. Danielle – because you’re a new friend.