Why Blog?

20-something years ago I used to blog, somewhere around the time when the word “blog” came into existence. I started doing it with the hopes of sharing my side of stories that were edited and distributed from the perspective of the storyboard visionaries at Bunim-Murray. I wanted to use my own words and color in unseen details to any event that was twisted and hacked to give the impression of something much more entertaining than whatever my version of the truth could provide.

There was only so much content there, and I found myself enjoying writing just to write. I loved…sharing. I’ve learned in my professional life over the last several years that I’m a “verbal processor.” I talk to think rather than thinking to talk. If I’m trying to solve any kind of problem, I hit a wall without even knowing I’m at that wall in finding a solution until the moment I start speaking to someone, regardless of their contribution to the conversation or even their understanding as to what I’m trying to solve. My brain simply discovered new variables to any equation simply by the act of sharing to an audience, and no matter what I did, I could not replicate those results alone. I didn’t fight it. I just started throwing “verbal processing” invites to my friends and coworkers (who do also have valuable input), but I always completed the meeting with a new found clarity.

The same applied for emotional processing. With or without a problem to solve, my writing seemed to have a unique flow and developed conceptualization if I wrote anywhere that someone else could see it – regardless of if anyone saw it, much less how many.

But thirdly, I loved the connection it formed with complete strangers.

I don’t have unique problems or experiences, they’re only unique in that they’re in my own life occurring with my own players in my own order with my own unique combination of variables that add up to it being my life and no one else’s. But the themes are not new to this world, and I don’t believe I’m fit to sit on a rock to preach how anyone else should live their lives. My perspective is nothing you haven’t read somewhere else, or seen in 5000 Tik Toks or Reels.

I am quite literally “just another blogger” sharing my thoughts on my own observations with few goals in doing so other than writing “out loud.” It was one of the art forms that brought me joy, peace, clarity, and catharsis, and was encouraged by my handful of random readers who simply liked hearing what I had to say.

I liken it to the old question, “If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Before I get into the metaphor, allow me to digress about this question, because I never found it to be overly complicated. It depends on your definition of sound. According to Wikipedia, which is sourcing Fundamentals of Telephone Communication Systems. Western Electrical Company. 1969. p. 2., “In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the reception of such waves and their perception by the brain.” So, if you’re approaching the question exclusively from a physics perspective, if the tree falls, it absolutely makes a sound because the definition of sound does not rely on the observer. But if you’re taking the physiology and psychology perspective, it absolutely does not make a sound. It produces an acoustic energy wave, but without one to hear it, it’s just the wave, not the “sound.”

So my metaphor lands more in the human physiology/psychology camp. While my thoughts in my head, and my private journal writing effectively produces something, the existence (or rather, potential existence…I can’t guarantee a soul ever sees this) of one to perceive these words creates something entirely different. I’m eager to make a sound.

I have no idea how to navigate this website. I don’t know nearly any of the terminology and acronyms available and boasted by my platform and host of choice. I’m overwhelmed with what there is to learn to make these words land in front of anyone at all on a page pretty enough that it doesn’t hurt your eyes to read. I think I paid too much for something I don’t even understand, and I’m not even quite sure what questions I have yet to ask or phrases to type into google. So you’ll have to bear with me while I navigate this technical ship on which I’ve set sail when all I wanted to do was write down my thoughts.