Why do I read the blogs I read? Is it for the patterns, be they knitting, crochet, sewing, or anything else that takes my fancy? Is it for the instruction somehow? This is how we do this thing… Is it for the recipes? Is it for the conversation and drama? The look into someone else’s life?
Maybe a better question would be why do I write this stuff myself…
Why do I read it?
Because I like to learn about the person I am dealing with as it gives me a better understanding of where they are coming from w the way they are teaching and/or explaining something…because it is entertaining…because I simply like to learn and know how other people deal w different situations…I like to compare my personal level of insanity to someone else’s level of insanity in order to get a comparative shot to see if I am over the top or just in the groove…because feeling as if I know the person about whom I am reading makes me feel move involved and more connected…and it makes me want to reach out and connect w the person I am reading about in some way.
Would I tweet or update facebook about every little detail, intimate or not, of my life? No. There are things I do keep private…but then again…I do not mind people having some information. I will never give you blow by blow details of what goes on in my bedroom…but I am proud enough to let everyone know that my man really does it for me in so many ways…
I like being able to read the drama and get the recipes. I enjoy the process that goes into creating objects…and the cat the knitter lives w while she creates. I want to know about the new pieces of art, as well as life w the puppy. Some days I need to hear about another knitter, what goes on in her life, how her children and significant others act and react. I need to see what other artists are doing and how things are affecting them in their daily lives as they pursue their art. I can go on and on, linking to hundreds of other sites.
I may not read each and every blog every single day, but I do go back to the blogs I follow, and I read. It uplifts me. It centers me. It makes me grateful for the things in my life. It gives me new ideas. It refreshes me.
Now, why do I write this stuff myself? It started out as a way to get things out of my system. Writing morning pages simply was not enough. I had a lot more to get out of my system…and I needed a more public forum in order to keep me honest, to keep me writing, to keep me motivated. Then I started to get feedback from what I wrote…I was helping others by working through my own stuff. Some days I do get up and think, no, I won’t touch that in a public forum…and then after thinking about it for awhile, I find myself thinking what if Shelia in the Outback needs to hear what I went through and how I dealt w it in order to help her work through her own issues? It’s not so farfetched to believe that I can be that beating of the butterfly’s wing for someone else.
Why do you do what you do? Why do you read blogs, or tweets, or facebook updates, or anything else? Why do you post? Or do you? Do you simply read and go on w your day? Do you comment on other’s posts? What do you do? How are you connected?
