On Blogs and Writing

I adore blogs. I read them almost obsessively. I don't "follow" any in the traditional sense of receiving notifications of whatever sort to alert me of new posts, but I check quite literally every couple of hours to see if anybody has posted anything new. I guess in a way, I do it because people fascinate me, and the blogs that they write serve as a further way for me to get to know them, to understand them, to make some sense of their lives in a different context.

The thing I enjoy most about other people's writing, however, is the window it provides into their world. It is the sort of crevice into their lives, their hopes, dreams, aspirations, passions, desires, that I find myself drawn to inexplicably. I feel like oftentimes, in reading someone's writing about themselves, I find myself looking through a key-hole, glancing into their private universe. It is the sort of experience where, if I was one to blush, I would be crimson as no other.

I do not feel ashamed or squeamish about reading the confessions of others. I do, however, find writing to be a very personal experience, and thus I hold the writing of others very highly in my mind, as something to be considered seriously and not interpreted lightly. Perhaps that is why, when asked for an opinion of one's writing, I am so hesitant to give one. True, I am not the best with words that express my thoughts and emotions. But on the whole, I do not desire to criticize or comment upon the writing done by anybody else. I feel as though I am no longer looking through that key-hole, but have instead been shoved into the room, and because it is not my room, not my life, not my writing, I feel uncomfortable being put on the spot in that situation.

No less than anybody else, and perhaps a bit more than some, I do notice things in what people write, how they write it, I often formulate guesses as to why it came out the way it did, even if it is an unintentional detail. However, these are my personal reflections...they are my own hypotheses, investigations, conclusions. I do not fear them being disproved so much as I do not wish to intrude to the point that would be required for them to be.

In a way, that largely reflects how I view people. I understand them as entities with aspects that they flaunt to the world proudly (occasionally even arrogantly) and aspects that they retain mostly to themselves. But somewhere in between those two extremes one finds what is put down into writing on a blog, a website, a note, or whatever else. And I find that I am never certain how to treat it--whether to mention it or avoid the subject entirely. Thus I have defaulted to the safer option, to keep it out of conversation unless it is brought up by the author of the piece itself.

Even if I am explicitly instructed to criticize, to judge, to react...I find myself confused and uncertain about the mannerisms to which I should prescribe. I understand quite well the desire for privacy, and I honor that desire, occasionally more than is beneficial for anyone. Regardless, that is what I think of an individual's writing...I find that it reveals occasionally even more than was meant to be revealed. As a result, I leave it alone and don't wander too close, leaving the semi-private thoughts of the author to remain their own, unmarked by my opinions...even if they want them to be.