And of course I missed my third blogiversary. Again. Which means that it is a tradition to do so (I totally love invented traditions). Missed it might be, but it must still be celebrated. I'm going to put the snarkage aside here and say a few things:
1. Thank you for reading. In all sincerity. Oh, we writing types, we write and most of us are guilty of hiding our works under a rock of insecurity, not believing that our written voices have a place in the cacophony of the world, convinced that we're atrocious at it but compelled nonetheless to write. In this age of over-achievement, it is especially hard to imagine anyone bothering to stop by your musings when there's so many more out there who are far better at marketing themselves, who are far more well-regarded, who are far more talented. But when the hit meter tells you that someone is reading anyways, a piece of life's pure gold falls into your lap. So, thanks for that.
2. Original Content: okay, I'm gonna get a little preachy here. Blogging is NOT akin to Tweeting, FB-ing, SMS campaigns or any other form of social media. Like the novel, or the three-act play or the Delta blues song, the shairi, the High Mass, the football game- it has a form. This form is tied to a history. Blog is the abbreviation of Weblog- originally a kind of online journal-keeping that could be shared at the author's will. Log: as in to document experiences, the subjective view of life from one tiny human perspective, to the best of your ability, in order to bathe in and hopefully contribute to the ever-flowing river of (written) human discourse through time. Whatever iteration of blogging you are into, if you blog, do respect one tiny thing: the blog demands that you be there in person. It is still a writer's craft, a creator's platform. And Original Content will always remain the foundation, the soaring archways and quiet cathedral sanctity of this medium.
3. Have a great super-long weekend, and if you're in Bongo: may the potholes on the way to your house not flood too badly.
