I Blog, Therefore I Am

Have you ever rushed to finish a project so you could post it on your blog? Or maybe you didn’t rush to finish but you may have worked a little longer that day than you normally would have just so you could get that good photo for the blog. I know I have. The blog doesn’t drive every project, and I’d probably get just as much done with out it, but there are days that I will do a little more painting or drive a few more nails just so I will have that picture or be able to post about an accomplishment. I guess it’s a good thing in a way.

I remember the time last summer when I went to a picnic at a remote cabin and I forgot my camera. I wasn’t bummed so much because I didn’t have pictures for myself. I don’t really need them. It was the blog that suffered. I didn’t think to myself, “Damn, I wish I had brought my camera so I could get pictures of this.” It was more, “Damn, I’m not going to have pictures for the blog when I write about this cool, remote cabin.”

The blog really has become a whole other aspect of my life. It’s a new kind of relationship to have with people. Aside from relationships with friends, lovers, family, and coworkers there is now this new dimension of blogging relationships. I have relationships with friends that are different than relationships I have with family. I relate to those two groups differently. The same could be said for coworkers and friends. They are different groups that, while I’m still me, I relate to them on a slightly different level and I react to them in a slightly different way. Now I have this blog and I regularly read other blogs. In a very real way it has become a different aspect of my life.

Whether a blogger is in California, Illinois, Minnesota, Alabama, Washington, Canada, Ohio, Arkansas, or a number of other places they sort of seem like a group of friends no different than friends here in my own town. We share common interests. We can relate to each others experiences, and there is an almost real-time interaction. Just because it lacks the tangible aspect of being able to sit across the table and see the face, shake the hand, or give the hug there is still a very real emotional aspect to the relationship that is very similar to other relationships I have.

The best part of being apart of the Blogging Community is that the other blogs put….well, if not a face, than a person….hmmm… how to express it. I think that the individual blogs humanize individual regions of the country. Chicago used to be one large teeming mass of humanity that I had never been to, and a place where I didn’t know a soul. I could list statistics about the city like the tallest building, the closest lake, and when it burned down, but now I know people there and it feels like I have an on-going relationship with them. I can tell you what they did over the weekend, what pets they have, and most importantly, I know about their houses. And who ever thought that I would ever in my life know anyone from Eutaw, Alabama. Now, it almost feels like I went there on vacation at one time.

I’ve traveled a lot around the country, but I think I’ve learned more about the people from different parts of the country from reading blogs at houseblogs.net than I did by staying in a motel some place and seeing the local sights. Not that there is anything wrong with visiting new places, it’s a lot of fun, but blogs bring a new dimension to it. It’s a very different and interesting experience. Who would have thought this cold, sterile little gray box sitting on my table would give me a more intimate look at so many different parts of the world. I’m not isolated in this Blog New World, quite the opposite. New technology has expanded my world on a much more personal level than I would have thought. It hasn’t replaced anything, it has only enriched it.