Why Do We Blog?
A few days ago, I was reading someone's blog (I don't remember who)* that was talking about the art and the "why" of blogging (or it might've been in a chat conversation, I'm not sure). I had been thinking of posting something about it, because when I told someone IRL that I have a blog, they asked me if I had monetized it, and my answer was, "Why in the world would I sell my soul and my readers for a few measly dollars a month?"
So, if money isn't the reason (and it really shouldn't be—it is the most servile motivation for doing anything), what is?
I think of the old adage of the mountain climbers: "Why do you climb?" The obvious response, "Because it's there!" As an old joke goes, when asked "Why do you do what you do?" the spelunker answers, "Because it isn't there!"
I think of blogging like spelunking: We look to what isn't there. We write what hasn't been written; we capture in a moment of inspiration words that have been waiting the entire age of the universe until now to be inscribed with pen, pencil, charcoal, or bytes for the betterment of all.
Now, the necessarily wizened among us would likely retort, "What do you mean, 'it hasn't been written yet'?!? It's all been written: by better authors, by AI slopvalanche, or if nothing else, The Library of Babel!"
True, true. But ultimately, I'm not competing with Borges, Shakespeare, Hemingway, an AI-automated room full of furious typewriter-pounding monkeys, or even you, gentle reader.
I am competing with me. To see if I can produce beauty from the ashes of life all around me.
And that is why I write.
Addendum
*Silly me, it was the excellent OrbitalMartian, of course!
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