A New Hope
Hello and welcome to my first blog post!
The idea of starting a blog has been something churning around inside me as something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. And now, as you can see, I’m doing it. I’ve been working on and thinking about it a lot, but not in that super useful way that productive people seem to do. I’ve worked on and thought about it in the herky-jerky way people do when they have equal parts enthusiasm and self-doubt. This mostly results in asking myself questions like:
“Why am I starting a blog?”
“Why now and not 20 years ago when blogs were popular?”
“Aren’t you a little old to be starting something like this?”
“Does this really seem like a good idea to you?”
“Shouldn’t you be a better writer before you start blogging?”
“Why would anyone read your blog when so many other bloggers are more interesting and/or better writers?”
“Who is going to read this?”
And so on.
I worked on three drafts of a post that was meant to be my first one until I realized it wasn’t any good. But it took a few weeks into working on the fourth draft before I finally admitted to myself it wasn’t any good. I tried so hard to write it well and create careful prose that subtly let you know I don’t think what I’m writing is any good while also acting like I very much do think it’s good after all. My choice of topic wasn’t any better. I tried giving a shallow yet expansive take on some personally significant events of the past two years while trying to justify my (odd) choice to do that. But worst of all, the whole thing had a guarded insincerity about it, and if nothing else, I hope to drop all of that deflective posturing.
Maybe that original attempt at a first post is neither as good nor as bad as I think it is. Maybe I just got sick of it on repeated readings. Maybe someday I’ll share it. Maybe I’ll forget all about it in a few days.
Maybe a lot of things, I suppose.
But that doesn’t need resolving here! What I need is to figure out why I’m writing this blog.
The too-short answer is: I just want a place to put down some thoughts. But that’s not super accurate, because while I will be doing exactly that— getting down some thoughts— I already do that every morning for a half-hour or so in what I (often mumblingly) refer to as my “Morning-Writing-Exercise-Journal-Thing That I Do?”
The too-long answer is simply too long (and insufferable!) to write out, let alone post here.
So we’re left with what I hope is the just-right answer: I want to...
See if I’m any good at writing
Get better at it either way
Write about stuff that interests me, which includes but is not limited to:
Science (I’m a Fan)
Parenting (I Have Kids and They Will Get Mentioned Sometimes)
Popular Culture (Shows and Movies)
Unpopular Culture (Books and Podcasts)
Philosophy (We All Have One!)
Performing in Front of an Audience (i.e., Memories of the Before Time)
Interact with other people in a fun and/or constructive way in the comments.
Write in a way that’s funny, or at least interesting and engaging, with a little bit of seriousness and sincerity thrown in to keep me honest.
Utilize the list structure in a fun way.
Have fun!
And so, to cap off this with the third in a trifecta of lists, here are the answers to the questions I posed to myself at the top of this Blo-Po (yeah, I think I’m gonna call these “Blo-Po”s).
“Why am I starting a blog?” I feel like most of this post was spent answering that.
“Why now and not 20 years ago when blogs were popular?” At first I was too lazy and depressed. Eventually I was too distracted. And then I grew into being too busy. Only at this point in my life have I collected together the necessary energy, interest, and time.
“Aren’t you a little old to be starting something like this?” Probably? But it’s not like I can make myself younger (yet!) so that narrows my options to a: do it anyway, or b: go ahead and give up and let the creative part of me that wants to try new things crawl into a cave and die alone. And I don’t have the energy to be that melodramatic.
“Does this really seem like a good idea to you?” Not really, but it’s like, my best idea, so I’m gonna ride it out and see where it takes me.
“Shouldn’t you be a better writer before you start blogging?” I feel like that’d be ideal, but apparently, it’s not a prerequisite, so...
“Why would anyone read your blog when so many other bloggers are more interesting and/or better writers?” I honestly don’t know. But I hope to find out.
“Who is going to read this?” The only one I know for certain right now is you, but I’m happy to have you. Please leave me a comment and say “hello”!
