quare id faciam?

Quare id scribiam?

Why take up blogging? I've resisted all thoughts of joining the blogging class in the two years, roughly, that I've taken a regular interest in the blogs of others. Why should I change my ways now?

This isn't an easy question for me to answer. The change of mind to start a blog and see if I can maintain it, in fact, is singular and kind of sudden. On the other hand, the factors that seem to be contributing to this relatively quick turnaround are varied and mostly developments of a number of months, at least.

This isn't the first time I've tried to set up a web site, certainly. And some of the old notions of the sorts of benefit that I've thought I could find in having a non-blog site are now renewing themselves in my mind, with the difference that it now seems to me that a blog is likelier to be kept up than a site with no running, dated system of organization. We'll see if that holds true.

Perhaps first among those old, nagging notions of benefit to be gained with a web site is the hope that I'll start bringing together diverse interests so that they feed one another and grow together in an integrated way. In my mind, thinking about architecture, theology, and language, to take examples, have always seemed to belong to the same stream of recurring & interwoven movements of reflective & creative inner life. But it is difficult to keep much of a definite sense of the direction or strength of ideas' growth, or of the points where some important shift in my thinking may be happening. I've gotten a bit better lately at jotting down thoughts in a little journal/sketchbook I keep; but it's still intermittent. A web site makes certain kinds of 'jotting down' easier — particularly where a published idea or image might be connected to what's been on one's mind.

I could go on here. There's a lot that could be said about blogging as journal keeping, pro & con. In sum, though, I've decided to get a practical feeling for the pros, and to challenge myself on the cons as far as possible in my circumstances.

There's a remaining reason for my own descent into blogging, worth mentioning here. It has to do with the example of bloggers whose efforts I've followed for a while with appreciation, some of whom are listed in the sidebar links. Over time I've observed that it's not so much the quality of individual posts or exchanges generated that represents a blog's contribution to the quasi-community of people, bloggers & readers together, who have some interaction by way of it; as it is the continual tucking- & tying-together (as a bird or mouse weaving weak stuff into a framework not necessarily very strong but nevertheless whole & useful), the kneading-through, of things recognized as material to well-living & responsibility — however lightly or awkwardly any one post or comment may touch the material things. I begin to think, then, in view of others' examples, that I can stand to try keeping some of my own little bits of idea & pursuit 'live', out where they can be poked at, picked over, & passed around by any who find their own interests stirring in kind.

posted by paul bowman @ 2:00 AM