Why Blog: Part Eleventy
Category: Local... Navel Gazing...
Posted Friday, October 12, 2007 at 11:05 AM [GMT-6]

Several of my blogging buds recently posted about an article that appeared in Christianity Today in which the author proclaimed the death of blogging. I haven't read the article (nor, I confess, all of the posts about it) but I suspect it goes something like this: blogging is hard, you can't make any money at it, and besides, no one cares what your cat had to eat yesterday.

Fine. Whatever. If that's what the author had to say, he or she missed the point of most blogs, and that point was eloquently stated by my pal Jim (OK, so I did read some of the posts): I'm just interested in writing stuff down. IOW, there's no grand over-arching scheme to get rich and famous and do anything more than have fun with words and ideas.

And, occasionally, uplift the spirit of someone you don't know and likely never will.

Like the family of the man to whom Tricia pays tribute in this post, a man many Midlanders will recognize.

That post is an example of why blogging should continue. A woman writing from the hinterlands of Michigan about her memories of her pediatrician back in West Texas represents the purest motives for blogging: telling others about someone who was important to her, and doing so in a way that honors the memory of the one she's writing about. As an added bonus, she also added something to our knowledge of our city's history.

I didn't know Dr. Allen while he was alive, but, thanks to Tricia, I do now, if only in the tiniest of ways. Because of her skillful writing and her interest in just writing stuff down, an intangible fabric is woven a bit stronger.

What did you do with your time today?