Public Perusal

Now, let's discuss blogs that are fit for public perusal.

I had a friend once who would publish every thought broiling in her head. A lot of them were epiphanies that were highly inspiring that led to more intellectually stimulating runoffs and further conversations and or blogs. But some of them were pure whining and I felt, beneath her. They improve no one and they reflect an uncomplimentary side of her to public perusal.

Of course she did not agree with me. A blog is either whining or boastful.

If I look back at some of my blogs with a critical eye, they all seem very boastful to me. Although at the time they were written and published, I thought I was just sharing some interesting insights.

But then again, any event or insight could be reported with a negative or positive slant. We could either whine over something or boast about it. We could choose to empower our readers with our experience; we could choose to entertain our readers by writing wittily about our mishaps or we could invite our readers to spiral down the woe-is-me-the-world-is-mean path.

Sadly, in the case of my friend, the blogs that garnered the most response are the woebegone ones. They are chockful with responses of pseudo-concern while her most inspirational blogs have only one or two, or worse, no response at all.

Human nature has such a formidable arsenal of vocabulary when commiserating over a misfortune or negative event. And are woefully tongue-tied in the face of an inspiring and positive event.

Bad news sell way better than good.

A Blog A Day

If you declare or profess (as I do) that one of your values in life is to "learn one new thing a day", one of the methods to ensure and keep track of that would be to write a blog a day. Or if some entries are not fit for publication and public perusal* - to consign your insights in your private journal.

I used to keep daily journals when I was young and I have a whole chest of scribblings - testament to my mental and intellectual growth. As I grew older and moved house quite a bit, I kind of gave up journal keeping, mistakenly rationalizing with myself that if I continue writing at such a prodigious rate, by the time I die, my heirs or executors would have to contend with so many journals to make such a bonfire as to put Guy Fawkes to shame.

In today's digital age, such an excuse cannot hold water anymore. So Heidi, write on.

* Public Perusal - tomorrow's blog