Why Blog?

As I am launching a new series of events here on the blog – all under the umbrella: CREATIVE WRITING, trying to get someone to play with on this writing thing, I got to thinking about blogging and why I even bother.

For some time now, I’ve had a bit of a blogging crisis. It’s not going as I had hoped. I’m neither as creative nor funny as I thought I’d be and my really good posts are few and far between. I am repeating myself and my texts lack originality. When it is going really good, I get an idea and everything just kind of writes itself. Other times, I have to pinch it out, like a long turd with lots of huffing and puffing and it is a pain in the ass.

Nonetheless, sometimes I go through the archives and I realize that tiny as this thing is; it IS something. I am proud of it. It is a body of work. More than two years of blood, sweat and tears – right there for the world to ignore.

Particularly the ones that were painful were good to write. Cathartic. I’ve told you about my abortion, when I got fired, my cousin’s suicide, my endless self-doubts, my marriage, my kids, my mommy-issues, my daddy-issues and my issues in general. In short: I am sharing my life. And it just feels good.

James W. Pennebaker, Ph.D., demonstrated that college students who wrote expressively about traumatic experiences subsequently visited the doctor for illness nearly half as often as the control group. In fact, studies show that expressive writing can help enhance immune function, lower blood pressure, decrease heart rate, reduce symptoms in asthma and arthritis sufferers, and lessen sleep disturbance in patients with metastatic cancers. Psychological benefits such as lowered anxiety, less rumination and fewer depressive symptoms have also been demonstrated.

So it’s not just me. Writing it down helps. (You don’t have to publish it, like I do. Attention-seeking hore! Djezuz!)

Now generally, people say very little to me about my blog. “Who do I have to fuck to get a Like around here?”  I wrote on Facebook the other week – and some were kind enough to “mercy-Like me” -the Facebook equivalent of a mercy-fuck. (Meh, I’ll take what I can get!)

But sometimes, I get an email or a message from someone I don’t know. But they know me. And they sometimes think I’m funny. They like my blog. They get it! Oh, to be “gotten”! To be discovered. It is the most satisfying thing evah’!

Other times I’m at a party and someone –who never ONCE “Liked” anything I ever did – will tell me that they are following it, and once we get talking, it will be obvious, that they are regular followers. Or in a conversation, someone will say: “You know, like you wrote on your blog the other day…”.

And it completely Blows. Me. Away.

(I don’t get the thing about never pressing “Like”. What IS that about? Please – I honestly want to know? Is it shyness? You don’t people to see what you like? You’re… WHAT? Tell me!)

And then there are the times when someone sends me a funny picture or a link to some article with a message saying: “Saw this and thought of you”. Nothing in the world compares to that. It touches me beyond words.

I have made new wonderful, funny, kickass friends through this thing. It’s amazing.

So there you have it.

Blogito ergo sum.

Cinda loves you!

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