I must be having one of those in-synch moments with Kate, because I, too, have been spending a bit of my time (mostly whilst pedalling fast down Canberra's superb bike paths) thinking about blogging and my motivations for writing online.
I'm a surface social person, inwardly quite shy, and I've always found most humans quite impenetrable. I ride/walk/mosey through life seeing people as mobile mysteries which will never be solved or understood. However, I'm constantly curious about what motivates them. As an army brat, I never had long-term friendships, and never had the chance to know people over years of interaction. I'm very good at having long, deep, meaningful interactions with total strangers at a bus stop, or an art opening, or at the supermarket, but also very good at running away when there's the chance of making a close friend. Interaction! Responsibility! Intimacy! Scary! Thank goodness for people like Best Beloved and Zoe who just kept coming around until I couldn't do without them.
However, and I'll stick with a oceanic theme here (since I've helped organise a pirate-themed face-to-face meet-up with whichever Canberra bloggers can be arsed turning up – very scary!), blogging has allowed me to wander through a crowd of people and not see a crowd of closed-up oyster shells, but a crowd of potential pearl containers. Who knows what those closed-up faces, not meeting eye-contact, contain? They might not be looking around engagingly, but they could be composing their next post as they wander to work!
When I blog, I interact with other humans without physicality, and that appeals to me a lot. I find people so interesting, and blogging never fails to surprise me. I write to people I would probably never get the chance to talk to, even if we were in the same room. I know you are a heady mix of academics, executives, nerds, geeks, right-wing extremists, etc etc etc. Who cares? We're in hyperspace. We're all equal. I love it. And when I do meet people, it's a blast. I've never been so happy about meeting people before. You probably know more about me than my partner does! (because he doesn't read my blog.) And there's no harm in that (as long as you keep some of this crap to yourselves :) ).
A newly outed lurker on my blog, Whitebait, writes in his 'About' section:
this blog might die on its ass without warning. but you know the best thing about it: like a significant number of other blogs it is a gift. Maybe one of those gifts you will want to hide in the back of the closet until the relative who gave it to you makes that unexpected visit, but nevertheless a gift. You don't have to pay for it and there will be no advertisements. Whitebait hopes there is something in here that sparks a moment of interest or pleasure.
I don't care how long I blog for. What I've got out of it will stay with me for the rest of my life. It's a hoot. When it stops being a hoot, I'll stop doing it.
OK, now to go to bed to sleep off the bottle of wine I've drunk tonight at dinner while Zoe babysat. You're all beautiful. Zigactly. I don't think I'll regret this in the morning, but you never can tell…
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