Articulated Thought

I love reading others’ posts as much as I love writing mine. Blogs, especially the ones I follow, I find deeply absorbing. There are some who perceive blogging as a big lump of inanity and frivolous talk. They obviously fail to see the transformational power of articulated thought in blog form. It is where the author turns something dull and prosaic into a very interesting and insightful read. It is where I hear sobs heaving from a despairing bosom or screams of rage, resentment and frustration finally voiced out. It is where I read posts so beautifully and earnestly written that the author was able to—borrowing Updike’s words—“transform pain into honey.”

Blogging, which is a constant articulation of one’s thoughts and feelings, is not an easy feat. It takes a fecund imagination, healthy amounts of vanity, narcissism, insecurity and self-deprecation, time to spare, ebullient creativity, some sense of personal drama, writing that comes from the deep places of the heart, the right balance of tact and candor, eye for detail, stylistic flair, maturity of insight and, above all, a passion for life.

Gleaned from the blogs I follow regularly as well as that of my own experience, blogging is, indeed, a celebration of life - the joyous and the painful; the ordinary and the extraordinary; the arbitrary and the capricious; the dark, somber and intense; the light and funny; the sacred and the profane; the usual and the unusual; the factual and the absurd.