Twelve Years Today

My blog anniversary every year reminds me of why I do this blogging.

Most of it is just plain selfish-

and the rest is narcissism.

I realized early on that this was good for me. After nearly 30 years of writing sermons at least every other week, I needed to continue to write and research. The Internet was really just exploding with blogs at that point. I had been online in one way or another since 1984(!) with Compuserve, but blogging was sort of new. I wasn't in on the ground floor, but I was down there in the first few years of its popularity. It was natural, then, to take my on-again/off-again unstructured style of journaling and turn it into a blog. It helped me keep mindful of what was going on around me. It challenged my discipline. It has, I believe, helped improve my writing skills as well as my observation skills. Also, it was fun and made me feel good.

And, here's the narcissism, I thought I had something to say. Rambling and perhaps disconnected at times, but still worth saying. Because it was and is only a hobby I never tried to turn it into anything but that. But I always had to believe that there were people out there who would want to know what I had to say, if only to wonder what kind of eclectic kook is this?

So here I am, 12 years and 5,800 posts later, still doing the same thing. Blogger tells me I get pageviews every day. That feeds the ego. But blogger must have changed something because I don't get the large number of Hormel Processed Meat that I used to. I get next to no comments. (Is that a passive way of asking for them? Hmmmm?)

As I said- this is fun. Even if I knew no one was reading, I would still do it. The difference between this and a journal is a) it's not as personal and intimate as I have been in journals and b) it's "published" which gives me an incentive to keep at it.



I still like it. It is still working for me and still helping. I hope you are enjoying it.

Let's move into year 13.