Sometimes, you just need to be asked the question

So, this afternoon, for some odd reason, the thought crossed my mind that maybe I needed a Facebook page for my blog.  I often get visits via Facebook, and I figured maybe I should do that.  I mentioned it to my husband.

He is very private and not desirous to draw attention to himself, so his immediate response was why on earth would I want to do that?  We talked for a few minutes about blogging and writing and some of my frustrations.  Then he said, "What do you ultimately want from your blog?"  

No one has ever asked me that.

People have asked me why I started blogging, why I like it, what about it I like, but no one ever asked me that in those terms.

I thought about it and surprisingly, it was an easy answer:  first, I want a place to write.  Why do I want to write?  Because it helps me learn.  What do I want to learn?   A whole lot of stuff.  The way I learn best is to read and report.  A blog is a perfect way to do that.

I don't need to have a significant "online presence," to use my blog for what I ultimately want.  I'm already working on it.

The thing that binds learning and encouraging for me is the writing.  It's the writing that draws me.  I could learn without writing a blog.  I could keep everything in a black notebook (which I do) and never write about it anywhere.  The desire to encourage is best served by writing on a blog.  There are indeed other ways to encourage, and I do those, too.  But a blog is good for that.  I'm working on that plan.

An online identity these days means a lot of things.  It means being found on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, or wherever.  It means maintaining a lot of complicated networks, syncronizing your posts, finding ways to promote, network, and put yourself out there.  I haven't done a lot of that, and I don't see myself doing anything like that anytime soon.  It would drive me crazy, because it wouldn't be so much about the writing, anymore.  I don't want to be some neboulous internet personality, unreachable and unapproachable.  It's that ordinary thing again.  I work best as the ordinary woman I was designed to be.

Learn, write, and encourage.

Sounds like a good name for a blog.

Comments

[rosemary]

Learn, write, encourage----I agree with you, and hope for those things from my blog too.