Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Blogs can be repetitious. Don’t bloggers tire of writing the same thing? No, they don’t. Each blogger is writing what she writes for the first time. I find much good in that.

A reporter asks a clergyman, “What are you going to say to that family whose house just burned to the ground?”

Clergyman replies, “Nothing I haven’t said before; nothing they haven’t heard before.”

This is the state of blogs. Untold thousands or millions of people tapping their thoughts on their keyboards while the little black letters appear on the window pane from Blogger or WordPress. The ratio of writers to readers is maybe a million to one.

What’s the purpose? After all, all those writers are, like the clergyman, writing nothing the readers haven’t heard before.

The purpose is the first half of the clegyman’s statement. The bloggers are writing something that they haven’t said before. It is the writers’ first time to discuss the death of newspapers, the silliness of meetings, the next computer from Apple, and any host of other topics that appear often in blogs.

Is it all a waste? I think not. The blogger is writing, honing a craft, improving a little with each tap of the keyboard. I think that people improving their ability to write is a good thing for the person and for the person’s acquaintances. The ability to write well is a good thing. The ability to write better next year than this year is a better thing.

Get an account on Blogger or WordPress. Write about what you think Apple should do next; speculate about the health of Steve Jobs, and either mourn or applaud the demise of the big newspapers. Perhaps you will be the only person to read what you write, but that is alright, too. You will have exercised the mind and stirred your emotions. Good things as well.