Ding, dong, the blog is dead

Or is it?

Steve at

Hog on Ice

seems to think so.

Granted, his post is several days old. But it's taken me several days to disseminate and process...to think about what he said. Hey...I AM blonde, remember?

Not that anyone cares, but I've decided that I think he's wrong. I think he's wrong because he's assuming that everyone got into blogging for the same reason he did. To seek fame, fortune and recognition. Of course, I'M assuming that's the reason he got into it...that's how I interpret it. That's the way he makes it sound, anyway.

I dunno...I never thought I needed a reason to blog. I never had an agenda. I never had a plan. I never had an ulterior motive. Obviously, I still don't. I've also never had more than 15 or so comments on any single post of mine. Not sure how many hits I had...still don't know. Never had a sitemeter. Never belonged to any silly 'ecosystem'. Never cared where I 'ranked'. If those were things I really cared about, I'm pretty sure I'd have closed up shop after the first month or so.

For me, it never was about the 'hit count' or the Google searches or gettin linked by the 'big dogs'. It never was about showing off my writing expertise in the hopes of scoring some pie-in-the-sky book deal. I'm pretty sure hell could freeze over before THAT ever happened.

And it sure as hell wasn't because I thought I could make some money at it, one way or another, though gawd!...wouldn't that be nice? I don't do ads. I don't have a PayPal 'donate' button. And I'll be damned if I'd ever stoop to beg-blogging, no matter what my personal circumstances are.

Of course, if someone just felt compelled to throw money my way, for whatever reason...because of something I write...or hell, I dunno...outa the goodness of their heart...hey...I might be a lotta things, but I ain't stupid. My email address is right there on my profile. Email me and we'll talk.

From the get-go, I never planned to be recognized for my blogging. But because of the blog, I wound up gettin a couple articles in the local paper and a ten minute spot on a TLC show. Big deal. I looked upon those things as gravy...a bonus. That's enough 'recognition' for me.

Nope. For me, blogging is all about me, baby. I do it for ME. I do it because I like to hear myself talk. I do it because I like to hear what my three or four readers have to say about what I talk about. Even if it ain't nice. There's always that little 'delete' button, after all. I do it because I've met some wonderful people that I otherwise would never have had the opportunity to meet. That's just priceless to me.

I do it because I truly like peeking into other people's lives. Seeing how they live. Seeing how different (or similar) their lives are to mine. It's not only legalized window-peeping, it's encouraged. For a voyeur like me, that's priceless, too.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think Steve's a really smart guy. A little on the anal-retentive side, but hey...he's gotta be smart, right? After all, he DID get a book deal out of bloggin. It might not turn out to be a widely-acclaimed book. It's not about important social issues. It's not a religious or political manifesto. It's not something that's going to change the world in which we live and I'd be willing to bet that it'll never make the best-seller list, though that's just my opinion. But, hey...it's a book deal. It got him what he obviously wanted out of blogging. And, that's what it was all about. For him.

And that, dear and gentle readers, is kinda my whole point.

Blogging can be pretty much what you want it to be. No, it won't ever make us all famous. It can't give us all book deals or our own tv shows or high-paying jobs. It won't make us all political pundits (yawn). It can't give us all fame and fortune and recognition. I'm pretty sure most of us already know that. I'm also pretty sure that's not why blogging was created in the first place.

If you get into it because you think you might get a book deal like Steve...well...good luck. I wish you the best, but I'm not holdin my breath. Blogging...Steve's definiton of blogging, anyway...might be dead.

By MY definition, it ain't.