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Why do I blog
A few years ago, it didn’t mean anything. The word simply did not exist. Just as back then, the currently popular terms “oxymoron” and “no-brainer” would have best described what “blog” meant, i.e., it was mostly unheard of. Nowadays “blog” has virtually replaced the word “essay.” Nowadays when people want you to write an essay, they will tell you to “blog it” instead. The “essay” I am told is derived from the French infinitive essayer, "to try" or "to attempt". Which almost perfectly describes what it is – an attempt, mostly futile, to put into words what the writer or “essayist” feels, recollects, reflects, believes, has observed or learned about a particular subject matter, and desperately wants to share it with others – for posterity, as his legacy, or for some such similar noble, lofty or dubious purpose.
I think I got into blogging mostly because I learned about cyberspace. There is something about “www” that fascinates and attracts me. I like to think that I may be communicating some of my innermost thoughts and feelings with someone, something, “somewhere out there.” And that unlike those hieroglyphs written in stone, my blogs will be there floating in outer space for all eternity…theoretically. My blogs are not meant to preach, crusade, convince, much less to demand acquiescence from others. At my age, it would be almost ridiculous to think about launching a political career or spearheading an advocacy by blogging. I like to think that I blog for blog’s sake. Some people paint, others grow rose gardens, some sing. I blog.
You might also say I think. Ergo, I blog.
What do I blog about? Mostly anything that comes to my mind. Since I’m not paid to do it, I only blog whenever I feel it. And I admit I am rather whimsical and capricious about my choice of blog topics. As much as possible I avoid blogging about current, sensational, earth-shaking issues. I leave those for the professional opinion writers and journalists. However, I take my cue from what the Apostle Paul has long ago suggested: “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] anything worthy of praise, it is good to ponder on these things.” (Philippians 4:8).
To ponder – now there’s a good word. But I do one better, I not only ponder, I contemplate. I try to discern. In short, I blog. And, therein lies the difference between a good blog and a bad one. Nevermind the style, grammar and syntax. Particularly for us Filipinos who have yet to decide what language finally we should adopt and use, language has to be a secondary consideration. What we must emphasize is content. The English language is not our own. So, we must constantly apologize for our atrocious English. But there is no excuse for poor content or bad taste. That’s what pondering does.
Pandering, now that’s something else. There is just too much trash already out there in cyberspace. In just a matter of a few years, we have managed to pile our literary junk in the Internet in the name of blogging. It has become a chore sifting through the garbage. It’s no longer called “junk mail.” Now it’s “junk e-mail” or“SPAM.” Now half of the time I’m deleting unwanted e-mail just to access what I’m looking for. Sadly, it has also been estimated that 90% of all materials in the Web are pornographic in character or content.
Throughout history, man has always found a way of turning good things into bad or using them for evil. In 1864, the chemist Alfred Nobel found a useful way of using TNT as an explosive device for practical use in the mining industry. Soon after, man found a way to use it as a weapon to maim and kill hundreds and thousands of people in the battlefield. In the early 20th century, someone discovered the so-called atomic or nuclear energy. Not long thereafter, the war freaks devised the atomic bomb and nuclear-powered submarines. Some dedicated scientist successfully isolates a potent microbe in his desire to combat a dreaded disease. Immediately thereafter, it is converted into a weapon for mass destruction (WMD). What is drug abuse if not medicine taken or used not for medicinal purposes but for some inordinate pleasure or bad habit?
It’s true of course that many have turned the medium to send hate-mail or be downright offensive. The scientific name for such specie of the homo sapiens I believe is the Anglo-Saxon term “jerk.”
For a while I thought that blogging was the new medium. Since I couldn’t manage my own website (there were already millions on the Web anyway), I settled for the social networking group called“multiply” which I still use from force of habit. Then came Twitter and Facebook and Youtube and things have never been the same. This week it’s Facebook. Tomorrow it will surely be something else. Now it seems there’s another thing becoming quite popular called “viral video.” No, it’s not a disease, but it’s just as infectious. Lately, some Middle East countries have been engaged in “Facebook revolution” to try to topple their autocratic governments.
A few years before he died, and well before “blogging” was invented, my father would spend most of his waking hours typing (no word processors then) and writing what we thought would be his “memoir.” When he finished, it turned out to be a book(“Cockfighting in the Philippines”) which he made sure got published. It was a technical book on the little intricacies and trade secrets of this popular Filipino pastime as well as some bits of homegrown wisdom only a septuagenarian can accumulate through the years. Schooled under the Spanish-American transition period, his English had the characteristic Spanish flavor, unidiomatic, stilted and rather awkward. But at least it kept him busy, focused and away from the dreaded visits of a Mr. Alzheimers. Plus, the book earned him a place in the National Library of Australia; and the last time I looked in Amazon.com, the book if you could find a copy was selling for the princely sum of US$43.95, which is something I still have to earn from all of my postings.
Maybe it’s genetics. The Lansangs like to think they can write. Just as some people naturally or instinctively become woodcarvers, painters, pianists, or banduria players (Cebuanos, mostly), we have cousins who became newspapermen, journalists, poets, copywriters, and ghostwriters.
For me, though, thus far it’s strictly ars gratia artis, art for art’s sake, as the MGM icon goes. It’s not the money, not yet anyway. I believe that blogging must not be commercialized. There’s all kinds of medium for that, i.e., print, radio, TV, etc. which all pay good money for professional writers and publicists.
Blogging then forces me into a reflective and meditative mode. Since writing also requires more careful analysis and precision than idle thinking or even serious contemplation, blogging becomes a disciplined form of meditation. That’s it – writing requires more precision. After all, once it’s written, especially in cyberspace, it’s there. It can’t be erased, only consigned to the recycle bin. To paraphrase Pilate, “quod scripsi, scriptum est.” Jn. 19:22. Blogging helps to sharpen one’s focus on a particular subject matter. It is illuminating. It is not only inter-active, it’s cosmic – you have the whole universe to converse with, theoretically. While you’re not paid to do it, you don’t have to pay for doing it either. There is no need to find a publisher and neither is there any danger of receiving a rejection slip.
Naturally, blogging tells quite a bit about the blogger. It is a window into the blogger’s state of mind. If you want to know a little more about me, read my blogs. Since I am not a paid publicist, nor do I have a hidden agenda, you might say that you learn more about the real me in my blogs. Hence, an essential requirement of true blogging must be authenticity. It’s hard to plagiarize these days without being found out. Google the Big Brother now knows virtually everything. To thine own self be true must now be the watchword. Otherwise, it’s not a blog. Instead, you end up becoming a fabulist, like Aesop, or a weaver of fairy tales like the Wizard of Oz. Blogging, anyone? James D. Lansang(jeemsdee@yahoo.com)
butchcelestial wrote on Feb 28, '11
Thanks, James for making my day today! Keep blogging. 'What you blog in life echoes in eternity.' (Plagiarized from Gladiator).
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