dys· phem· is· tic Monday, February 16, 2004
On Why I Blog
To paraphrase a famous Frenchman, "Reader, you have on your screen an honest Blog."
I got on the Internet early and have published some writing here. But not much of it was about me personally. The reason was simple: I figured, who wants to hear about me? And I suspect I was right.
But recently (this'll sound pretentious, incidentally) I was reading Montaigne's Essays. Although he's a Great Book of the Western World TM now, he began as an obscure bureaucrat of only moderate accomplishments. Retiring early to his chateau, he started writing what's supposed to be the world's first book entirely about the author as a way to escape depression. The reason this wasn't boring, I think, was because in examining himself, he ended up examining our common human-ness.
From that I learned that, although there isn't much value in reading about me, there may be some in reading about humanity itself -- into which I am one of 6 billion windows.
So this is me "with the bark off" as we say in Texas. If you find some value in reading such things, I invite you to peer into my life. If not, I certainly won't hold it against you if you move on. Either way, I will continue writing.
I got on the Internet early and have published some writing here. But not much of it was about me personally. The reason was simple: I figured, who wants to hear about me? And I suspect I was right.
But recently (this'll sound pretentious, incidentally) I was reading Montaigne's Essays. Although he's a Great Book of the Western World TM now, he began as an obscure bureaucrat of only moderate accomplishments. Retiring early to his chateau, he started writing what's supposed to be the world's first book entirely about the author as a way to escape depression. The reason this wasn't boring, I think, was because in examining himself, he ended up examining our common human-ness.
From that I learned that, although there isn't much value in reading about me, there may be some in reading about humanity itself -- into which I am one of 6 billion windows.
So this is me "with the bark off" as we say in Texas. If you find some value in reading such things, I invite you to peer into my life. If not, I certainly won't hold it against you if you move on. Either way, I will continue writing.
