I’m preparing to speak about Mormon feminist blogging in a few weeks. So as I’ve been mulling over various thoughts, I thought I’d make a list of the top 10 reasons why I blog….
1)For reflection. Each time I sit at my computer to write a post, I reflect on my life and cull the gems that I feel are worth sharing. This affords the opportunity to recall joy, blessings, frustrations. I like these moments of examination, they offer great insight.
2)For FUN. Often, blogging is play for me. I take an experience and try to render it in text. I experiment with phrasing, punctuation and pauses. I attempt to express humor and pathos.
3)To tell it like it is. I like having the uninterrupted space to tell my stories. No one us cutting me off mid-sentence or censoring my words. It’s probably the narcissist in me that enjoys the blog as both soapbox and pedestal.
4)To speak the unspeakable. On my blog I’ve often discussed my disability. This is a fairly taboo subject in mainstream culture. It’s empowering to me to tell the stories of my different body without framing them in terms of an inspirational or pity-full narrative. Yet, ironically, it is the parts of my life that are the most visible (my religious practice, my academic pursuits) that I discuss least often. I’m not yet sure why that is. (more on this in #10)
5)To share pictures. I’ve just started really enjoying photography. I know our camera sucks and my photos are amateur-ish, but they bring me great joy. I love sharing my ‘lens’ with you.
6)For community. Several of you, dear readers, know me only through my blog. Others of you are old familiar friends who like to continue to keep in touch through cyberspace. I cherish my virtual neighborhood. Your blogs and emails nourish me, your thoughts buoy me, and your comments affirm, challenge, provoke and validate my musings.
7)For memory. What joy it is to scroll through my blog history and remember the fun things I’ve done!
8)Because I’m a geek. Hmmmm….yes, I spend a good chunk of my day sitting at my laptop writing emails and composing blogposts. ‘nuff said.
9)To mimic John. I’m not really the jealous type, but I saw all the benefits that he’s gotten from blogging through the years, and I wanted in on it, too!
10)To be vulnerable. Though the personal essays and other opportunities I’ve had to share the intimate parts of my life over the past 10 years, I have often been afraid. I’ve been afraid to tell the truth as I see it, I’ve been afraid of offending, I’ve even been afraid of ‘discipline.’* But there is something so empowering about laying out truth bare. My truth-telling brings me closer to others, creates bonds with strangers, allows an intimacy that is both frightening and exhilarating.
*I suspect that the reason I feel reticent to discuss school and church are because of fear of backlash. Within academia there’s a pretty high barrier to becoming personal and vulnerable. The LDS church has a history is censuring its more outspoken members, especially feminist women. So far, no one in the Mormon ‘Bloggernacle’ has been disciplined by church authorities for what they’ve written on their blogs, yet I am still wary. I love the freedom of the LDS community on the Net. I don’t want to see that change.
4 comments
Thank you. I hope you post a version of this on the ExII blog sometime . . .
Great list, Jana. You’re inspiring me to get back to being more regular at Madwoman
“why I read”
Your reasons for blogging mirror what I find good and sometimes compelling in your writing.
I appreeciate your attention to detail (Thanks for taking the time to find and insert all those links in this entry.), and your ability find the meaning of large concepts in the small events of everyday life.
I enjoy your thoughtful, sometimes meditative discussion of your disability. I love the joy you take in your family (Does the relationship between my wife and I measure up? Would I make such nice, humorous, and supportive comments to my wife as John?) The discussion of LDS is always fascinating for this unreconstructed Unitarian (A strikingly mysterious faith to me, unfortunately introduced to it in 4th grade when I read A Study in Scarlet.) I appreciate your courage to talk about yourself in such a refreshingly clear, intimate and undefended manner. I also appreciate our common interests. (My tomatoes are delayed but thriving this year. Try Black Krim sometime)
It’s pretty understandable that you hesitate to write more fully about school and church. It is natural to tread carefully around institutions that you value and on which your happiness to some extent depends.
I once lost a job due to my need to take ethical action. It felt really good at the time, and it was thrilling to be celebrated among my colleagues. Much of me still takes pride in the event. Yet the consequences were unpleasant and in the end I hardly changed the world at all. Sometimes the shining golden beacon that compells one to act for the Good can become the dull brown tarnished copper of the merely Quixotic. With enough time it can take on the verdigris of long forgotten struggles. Now I have much more experience with organizations and have better skills and less dramatic methods for institutional change.
Finally, it is simply intriguing to be connected to articulate and interesting people solely by means of a sparse stream of electrons who somehow know how to find their way to a distant shore.
Uh oh. No time to proof read. Please forgive any silly errors.
Thanks!
I love reading your blog. The tone and balance are about right and inspire me to not take myself quite so seriously. I love this added element to our communication. I love that we can feed off of each other–it’s a delight to be married to someone who loves words and ideas as much as I do.
It’s ironic that my blog focuses primarily on the two things that you avoid touching on (and I’m very aware of the risks). But I like that we can complement each other in our styles.
Is it possible for blogs to marry?