Recently, a Pearls Before Swine cartoon by Stephan Pastis caught my attention. The conversation between the two pig characters was:
“What are you doing?”
“Life has overwhelmed me, so I have shoved my head into the sand.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because ignoring reality is the next best thing to changing it.”
[Fellow pig puts head in sand next to friend.]
“This is the happiest day of my life.”
I believe that the common thread linking all bloggers together, no matter their blogging style or topic, is making a difference in the world around them. Specifically, trying to change reality rather than ignoring it.
Still, there are a lot of days when I’d rather stick my head in the sand, crawl into the nearest dark cave, and forget about the horrible things I read, things that happen to other people, things that happen to me, and the daily grind of life.
So I’d like to know how the above conversation makes you feel. I want to know if your blogging is part of your social contribution to the welfare of the planet, or something you do for yourself and no one else.
If you blog to help others, then why? How do you think your blogging will help? Has it? Tell us some stories of how your blogging helped to change reality and the world or your community.
If a blog has changed your life, the way you think, how you live and react to life, also share those stories with us. We want to know how blogging impacts our lives and changes the world. Or don’t you think of it that way? Do you do head-in-the-sand blogging? What do you have to say?
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen
Lorelle on WordPress 
8 Comments
I use blogging as something in between the 2! On the one hand, I use it to put snippets of what I’m doing down and so use it as a diary. On the other hand, if I see a news item I feel strongly enough about, I put it down.
I need to be more focused 🙂
Hmmm… good question. I guess I subscribe to an alternate theory, that the whole is great than the sum of the parts. My little contribution to the blogging world is my reflections on my world and life, some discussion of my work and techniques and the occasional commentary about politics and events. Really, though, I don’t read political blogs (unless they’re original or funny) and I mainly use blogging as a way of networking with other human beings who share interests.
So I suppose we’re changing the world, perhaps by changing what is effectively an “I” medium into a a “we” universe of like-minded people.
I’m rambling incoherently, now, probably due to a lack of caffeine….
i just blog becouse i like to do it. i am not trying to change the world, just make my place in it.
The timing of your post coincides with some thoughts I had on this subject.
Two posts written on May 24th: “A Reason to Blog!”, and a follow up in “Can’t Resist but add my praise”.
From the first referenced – “excerpted”:
However, your question made me think about my stats.
Mine is a new blog, and the pressures of living life make it difficult to post as often as I’d like, so when I look at my stats, and the source of the searches, I am pleased to see that some of these may yield a hint of the possibility of making a difference.
The only comment I have is that the one with the head in the sand is the rat. I assume you don’t read this comic often if you get that wrong…
Awesome Post!
Third Rake webcomic
Yes, I think I can help others, and yes, I think I can help myself. I am certain my perspective and life experience goes beyond that of most “normies” and I am also determined to find out how many people really relate to life outside of the norm.
I blog for affirmation, public and personal.
I used to love to write (poems, short stories, etc). I was fairly good at it, but not great. I kept a journal for years. Then for years I could not seem to write anything. Last fall, I quit my job to pursue my dream – to make a living doing something I love, Beading. I found out about blogging in January 07 and started my blog as a way to let people see who I am and how I create. I also wanted to document my journey on this path. It woke up my love of writing. It has become so much fun, I started a personal blog.
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