I Learned Something Today

So, this whole NaBloPoMo thing has been an interesting experience. In some respects, I’ve really enjoyed it. In others, I’m at the point where I’m just ready for 2/28/10 so  can say I did this and completed the project. However, I can seriously say that I have learned a lot in the past 23 days.

First, I remembered why I stopped blogging regularly. Blogging, to me, is a way to get my own thoughts on issues or events together clearly. Blogging gives me a way to get my ideas into a coherent fashion. A lot of times, an idea will enter my head, and I need to work out the logic behind the thoughts. Sitting down and typing gives me a chance to explore ideas and thoughts. It gives me a chance to pretend I have an audience (and sometimes I do!) to try to explain my reasoning to myself or others. A lot of times I blog because I have something I want to share.

Blogging regularly means that I have to find something to share. My life is not always interesting, my thoughts not always coherent. As a matter of fact, most days I’m just trying to make it from minute to minute. I’m generally just trying to stay awake and coherent long enough for The Kid to go to bed so that I can ensure that he doesn’t somehow manage to kill and/or maim himself. On a really good day, I manage to put together a family moment of sustenance, known in many other circles as a “dinner.” Most of the time, the ideas in my head are fleeting, like moths. They live for a few moments then die away.This is probably for the best for the rest of the world.Finding something to share is different than wanting to share. Instead of writing with passion, many times I’ve found that I’ve been writing to “get ‘er done.” To me, this defeats my general feelings about blogging.

Second, I have found that I have very specific feelings on what makes a good blog post. A good blog post requires that I not only present my ideas and thoughts, but that I also manage to clearly explain my logic and reasoning behind them. In essence, to me, a good blog post requires that I write a mini-essay. Given that this is nothing but a monologue that you, dear reader, must somehow muddle through, I need to make sure that you understand all facets of my thinking, lest you be confused. Especially since, you know, all of my thoughts are so very earth shatteringly important to the continued existence of the planet. For me, writing a blog post is about passion. It’s about thought. It is about communicating in a virtual world in a new way. This communication, to me, cannot be done in a sloppy manner. To post sloppily is to do a disservice to myself intellectually and to my reader(s).

Third, I have learned that a good blog takes a really. really. long time write. I like to write my blogs appropriately. This means that to do so requires the allocation of a good solid hour or so of time. Every night I sit down to write and realize that it’s going to take me a good solid hour to start and complete the post I want to write. In fact, one post was started the night before because I wanted it to be just.right. In order to do NaBloPoMo, I have had to focus on writing and less on other interests. This has meant that I have had to sacrifice knitting and spinning, to an extent, to complete my goal of daily posting. It has shown me that when I want to write, I need to be committed. This commitment to writing has shown me that while I find this whole experience to be wearisome, I do, indeed, love to write.

Fourth and finally, this experience has taught me to look at my world in a whole new way. Having to blog every day means that I have had to find something to talk about every day. Since I feel that a good blog post has to be about more than “this is what I did today” and has to place my own experience into a greater context, I’ve found that everything I do throughout the day seems to somehow be related to the greater world around me. I admit to enjoying seeing my life as something smaller. I like seeing that my own experience is nothing more than a cog in the bigger wheel of life. This puts my life into perspective. Nothing in my life is so enormous that it requires grand drama. I like that looking at my day-to-day minutes of living resound with something larger. I love that I get to put my own life in perspective through blogging. I like that I force myself not to make this blog about the “oh whoa is me” but “wow, look at how my life is just a representation of this other bigger thing.” To me, that is the goal of my blog. Hopefully, I have fulfilled this goal. If not, hey, we all have something that we need to work on in our lives.

With all of the above being said, I like that I’ve been forced to analyze the world and analyze myself throughout this process. Will I continue it past the end of this month? Ummm, probably not. However, I would do it again in the future. Right now, I’ve learned that my experience may touch others on occasion, it may help others on occasion, and it may, on occasion, be vaguely interesting. It’s good to learn new things.