This is my three hundredth post. A milestone, I guess, but not really too impressive, given the number of years that it has taken. Blogs have been on my mind though, started (as so many trains of thought are) by one of Jude's questions: "Is blogging dead?"
I've been plopping along here since 2007, and although there were a couple of years where posts were almost nonexistent, I could never bring myself to let it go. When I started there weren't so many blogs. I was on dial-up at that time and it took too long to do any more than minimal writing and picture uploads. I didn't tell anyone I knew that I was doing it and wondered if anyone would ever read what I wrote. Not too many did, but by commenting on other people's blogs I got responses and came to know some people I would never have otherwise met. It was like a door forming out of nothing, just barely open, but promising a whole world. I watched people come and go, and found that the door could close suddenly and without recourse. I noticed that even though the internet became more and more of a cacaphony, authenticity mattered a great deal. The blogs and sites that have lasted on my list are true to their writers. Many blogs did not hold my interest because the people behind them didn't share enough of themselves to compensate for only being cyber-shadows. One of the things I like best about blogs is that they can cut through a lot of conventional getting-to-know you blather and engender important conversations, but they can also hide or distort to the point of being mere facade, and that just isn't worth it. Also, the trend toward commercialization has had a very dulling effect.
On the other side, as blog writer I found out how hard it is to be consistently interesting and authentic. Keeping up a sparkling level of discourse is too high a bar for me most of the time. Fortunately, through Jude's blog and on-line forums I have found a group of kindred fiber enthusiasts who read my stuff and graciously forgive it when its boring. In Grace's latest post she talks about her computer malfunction and how isolated it made her feel. I would feel the same way, not because I don't have wonderful friends in material life, but because the cyber-door has opened far enough to permit real connections through the internet that I would hate to lose. I find I blog these days as a way to maintain the opening and keep up my end of our relationship.
So even after all these years, blogging is obviously not dead for me. I have never twittered and Facebook is too brief and facile for the kind of connection that keeps me here. Maybe if I was hoping for commercial pay-off I would feel differently. I love getting comments (no one has ever been mean on my blog) and new readers, but as I watch the internet metamorphose, the rush for likes and clicks and retweets seems mostly like evidence of massive insecurity than something real. What I have found through blogs feels real to me and that's what keeps me going. Thanks everybody.