I Get by with a Little Help from my Friends

I was surprised by the number of emails and links I received on my recent blog about being true to yourself when blogging. But when I read Visible Darkness’ comments on that blog, I was reminded that there were several things left unsaid in that entry, though I’ve already said some of this in “Why I Blog.”

In particular, he, and others, reminded me that I probably didn’t give enough credit to those who visit my blog. The truth is that I was happy doing this page when I had four or five visitors a day, but I’m even happier doing it now that more people are reading it. And I do appreciate the emails I receive from visitors to my site because it’s nice to know others find something worthwhile in the site.

I especially appreciate the links from other sites that I admire and read daily. When I began writing this blog, a single link from wood s lot made it easier to write the next day’s entries because I felt he was helping to transform a small part of the web into the kind of place I always envisioned it should be and because I was happy to be a small part of that.

Visible Darkness and a friend also made me realize how easy it is to get pigeonholed. Most of the links I get are to my poetry entries, and I like that because poetry is one of the passions in my life and I want others to share that passion. I’ve also been writing a lot about poetry because I tend to have an addictive personality, and I’m on a poetry kick now that the famous Northwest rain clouds have set in.

But like Visible Darkness, I don’t want to get stereotyped as a literary site. Even my best friend didn’t remember that I started this blog because I was so upset about the war in Afghanistan. Literature is an important part of my life, but when it comes right down to it I’m an old-fashioned liberal who’s mostly concerned about the environment and the state of the world. In the long run, I expect all of these concerns will become a part of this blog.

One reason I started a blog rather than a website is because it allowed me the freedom to be me. I felt like I could talk about anything I wanted to talk about here and express my personal opinions, something I never felt comfortable doing in the classroom. It’s also something I didn’t think I could do in a traditional web site, like the one I had planned on doing on hiking in the Northwest.

I write here because it gives me a chance to be part of the larger world on my own terms. Like many of my fellow bloggers, I want to improve myself while helping to make the world a better place.