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Why? — 10 Comments

  1. Blog has become our equivalent of the company water cooler or maybe the local pub. We can grippe about how everyone else is wrong and how much better the world would be if they just would do what we know is right. 

    Some pontificate, some argue, many agree, others sit back and listen making the occasional interjection. 

    Human nature causes like mind people to gather together and makes those who think differently uncomfortable enough to leave so there is a echo chamber affect. Some groups are more inclusive even becoming hostile to outsiders, other are more welcoming and open. 

    • I like the idea of "the local pub".  At least here all are welcome, smokers and non-smokers alike.  I would dearly like to know where the taps are though, and who's buying the next round?

      One thing I have noticed all right is that people tend to gravitate towards their own opinions.  I tend to read sites I agree with [though occasionally I drift over to The Dark Side] and there seems to be little argument here.  Sadly one of my favourite commentators disappeared off the scene because he couldn't tolerate my views on a particular topic.  [No names – no pack drill etc.]

      Sure it's all a laugh really.

      • Oh, do tell, Gramps!  At least reveal what "the topic" was. I haven't been coming here long, so I probably missed the debate.

        Pretty pleeeeeeeeese!

        • I don't kiss and tell.

          Suffice it to say that apparently anyone who questions manmade Warble Gloaming must be a complete idiot and should be instantly put to death to save the planet.  Or words to that effect.

  2. I have found that one should never ponder the "whys" of what one does simply because one does it. Unless, of course, it involves such things as murder and other such debaucheries in which case it would do very well to consider why one does such things. Especially before the law catches up with you or, at the very least, a pissed off relative.

    Since your personal blog does not does not cause anyone to die due to reading it (that you know of) or cause anyone, directly or indirectly, to go out and commit murder or other such debaucheries (that you know of) then it's best left to not to consider the "whys" of doing something you enjoy doing.

    Besides, what's wrong with and older man having a hobby? It's better than collecting poisonous toads for example.

    So, the better question you might ask yourself is, why not?

    • I don't know if this site has killed anyone yet, but I certainly hope it has raised the odd blood pressure or two?

      Why not, indeed?  I have the time, the technology and an opinion or two so they all blend nicely.  Not so easy though to give that kind of answer in an interview?  It's a bit like when I was a kid and would ask if I could do something and got the answer "because…"  That used to drive me mad.  Because why?  Because what?  I prefer meaningful answers!

  3. I sort of like "citizens' initiative" I once saw used to describe blogs.

    It's far better than that given by the "person who thinks he is highly influential in my life".

    And only yesterday a certain Frog showed that you guys can – in a circuitous manner – make a difference.

    http://thefrogsalittlehot.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/eu-referendum-bloggers-1-cameron-0.html

    (and goodness knows how many times Guido's tweaked tails).

    For sure chucking out something almost every day'll result in the occasional tedious brain fart, however I can relate to that business of doing the research, learning about the topic and posting something that makes it relatively easy for lay people to grasp is very gratifying.

    And yes it does stave off alzheimer and it does improve vocabulary and it's good to get something off your chest.

    And once in a while you can raise a smile, maybe even lighten someone's day. And that grandpa money can't buy. 

    • I would never kid myself that my occasional outpourings will ever have any political influence whatsoever.  The best I can hope for is that someone will read something and actually stop and think for a moment.  I'll leave the clever stuff to Guido, Ms Raccoon and their ilk.  Considering that my most read page is "How to order a Guinness" and that a lot of people come here researching suicide, I think I'm in a different league altogether!

      It has improved my spelling and two finger typing somewhat too!

  4. In posing the question Why do I write? you are posing an existential question, and you could be posing the question Why do I bother to continue existing? But getting back, you wonder why you write. Many writers have wondered about this. Some of them had big appreciative readers, others sold remaindered books and drank themselves into early graves. Others in their lives sold lots of books, then died and were soon forgotten. Yet while they live, to the age of 50 or 60 or 80, many writers continue writing to the end, because they can't not write, because they feel that communication with others, unknown others in the here and now and possibly in the hereafter, is important.

    The novelist and essayist George Orwell (d.1950 – tuberculosis) wrote a famous essay (only famous after the TB took him) and it is called Why I Write.  Here in an Irish blog it is quoted at length, this quotation included:

    "Looking back through the last page or two, I see that I have made it 
    appear as though my motives in writing were wholly public-spirited. I 
    don't want to leave that as the final impression. All writers are vain, 
    selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a 
    mystery."

    Yep, it is a mystery, and we'll never guess fully why Grandad writes, or many other bloggers. But here is a link to a larger extract from Orwell's essay:

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056771290

    Some people write to pass the time. Some people smoke pipes and write to pass the time. Some people smoke pipes, write and make love, then sleep to pass time. I could go on… Some people just pass the time. Hard cheese.

     

    • I have a funny feeling that I'll be long forgotten as an author before my book is even published. 

      Actually, Orwell sums up quite a few of my thoughts on the subject.  I can particularly identify with "Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness."  My problem is that I prefer to treat my illness with a nice large whiskey and an early night.  I don't think I'll ever make it to the lofty heights of being a Writer, as distinct from being a Scribbler.

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