Email

Got an email from a friend stating that she had read my blog (since I outed myself as a blogger) and decided to try it out just for grins, despite some serious doubts as to its worthiness as a pursuit. Does the world need another blog? No, probably not. And I don't need a (fancy trinket which changes regularly but often concerns diamonds and platinum), but I still want one, and that doesn't make me a bad person. It's a blog, not a fashion statement. Call it a blanket phone call to anyone who cares to listen. It's like one of those 3am shows on non-commercial radio, some chump playing you his favorite (usually obscure and often really, really boring) music and expanding on topics nobody is interested in but him (and maybe you), but you don't have to stay up all night to hear it. Who does it hurt? No one. Who does it help? Maybe the chump. Maybe you. Maybe nobody. There are worse vanities. Here was my reply, in part:

FWIW, I blog mainly as a way to keep from going insane, and not because I believe anyone needs to see my drivel. It's like DIY spam... I'm not nearly as hip and swell as a person really ought to be to keep a blog. My blog is not especially thought-provoking and serves mainly to reveal my self-centeredness, my naivete, my ignorance and my severe case of utter dullness. So really it's kind of a self-bullying exercise. :)

... I went on to state that I was so average that it pleased me a little to think that anyone ever read it or was mildly entertained by it.

I was thinking earlier about how having a blog is like having a sort of censored version of your diary laying around. You probably wouldn't discuss that pesky foot fungus or mysterious rash on a blog (vs. a diary), but you may write about things that not all your friends know about you. Like, a couple of friends now know that we go to church. GASP!

But they still remain friends, thus far anyway. Wonder if they are waiting for us to pull some born-again move -- "Would you like this badly written and terribly acted videotape of the Greatest Story Ever Told, free of charge and with no strings attached?" Not to worry. Not all Christians are weirdos. For more on this, read Ann Lamott's Traveling Mercies.

Well, I'm in trouble once again. Must finish cleaning. Wife about to start beating me. And I would deserve it. Party tomorrow and house so close to being clean...