To Blog or not to Blog - That is the Question  

Posted by Brock Booher

When did it become necessary for us to share our emotional baggage, pigheaded opinions, and mundane experiences with the entire digital world to be considered “connected”? I know that many of you who have been blogging for years took offense to that sentence, but it is the question I have been asking unanswered since blogs began.

I keep a haphazard type of journal to record my experiences and the attached personal emotions that I connect to them, but I don’t really want anybody reading them until I am good and dead. You see I think that when we begin to share our “personal” feelings online, we sometimes are careful with our words and subconsciously hold back because we know that people won’t wait until we are dead before reading them. Hence the question – Do people really express their deep personal thoughts on blogs? Probably not, because if we really unloaded our emotions of the moment like we would in a journal we would inevitably be judged by that moment without the long view of our life’s history. Let me explain.

My wife and I recently celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. I can honestly say that I love her more today than the day we got married (You are the best dear XOXOXO!) However, I could read you excerpts of my journal that would contradict my previous statement. In fact I once wrote a pointed (mean-spirited) letter to my wife while I was angry and depressed. When I calmed down and we discussed it (I apologized : )), she handed me back the letter and said I could reuse it since I seemed to get angry about the same things all the time (Ouch! But how true!) You see, she had the long view and did not judge me by the moment of temporary insanity (That’s why I love her!). I had the good sense to laugh and also recognize that the emotion of the moment did not carry the day.

Sometimes we need to have a constructive outlet for emotions that we know will not be judged by others until we have gone all the way of the earth. In my opinion that outlet is not a blog.

Blogs should be a place where we can tell our story, or at least our version of it. We should share those feelings that others can relate to and learn from, but without unloading our darkest emotional secrets. We should try to give people a window into our soul, and hope that others will feel more connected to us because we have done so.

That is what I will try to do with this blog.

Oh BTW, I still have the letter, but I haven’t had to use it since!

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 29, 2009 at Saturday, August 29, 2009 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

2 comments

I believe out of each couple there is at least one that is somewhat more level headed that can extract themselves from the situation/relationship and rationally evaluate what is going on in a meaningful way from the outside. Sometimes both can do it when the other is irrational/emotional at the time even when they may have trouble doing it when they are the ones that are emotional or not rational. I know that as time has gone on that I have been able to put myself in my wife's place more and more and understand that I am not always right....something that I have not always been able to do.

August 30, 2009 at 7:52 AM

Wise words, my friend. Chris and I just celebrated our 34th anniversary and we are the best we've ever been, despite separations and histrionics on both sides. It's been a wonderful trip and a GREAT learning experience for both of us.

August 30, 2009 at 8:13 AM

Post a Comment