Why blog?

If you are not a blogger, you may wonder why a person writes a blog. Many bloggers may have the same question. I can't speak for others, but I can tell you why I blog.

I blog because I want to better understand the issues of the day. Television, newspapers, news magazines, the Internet and other media provide a partial story. To gain a complete understanding of any issue requires detective work. For me, blogging is the discipline that causes me to do the appropriate level of investigation and analysis. After research and analysis, the blog acts as a report that forces me to analyze what I have discovered and to make a coherent and cogent presentation of what I have found with an expression of what it means to me. The blog is a set of facts and analysis as I understand an issue, interlaced with, hopefully, informed opinions that I have concluded and that I express through the written blog. So there you have it: Find, analyze, conclude, express is the model I follow in blogging.

A classic argument against writing a blog is that no one ever reads what you (a possible blogger) or I (a confirmed blogger) may write. Undoubtedly, that is largely true. Few read my blog, but I receive statistics that imply that some do. Even fewer comment on what I have written.

Neither the lack of readers nor the sparsity of reader comments diminishes the value that I receive from researching and writing the blog.

I full well realize that, with my blog, I generate millions of data bits that when I depress the 'publish' button, get flung out into cyber space where the effort may or may not find a target. In the true blogger spirit, I have done my part. I wrote and published the blog to the open Internet community. It is up to others to find and read it.

I have little control other than publishing to the medium that allows Google, Bing or some other search engine to find it.

The content of my writing varies, but primarily, I write about government, golf and business. I am retired from one of the three (the 'b'), spend much of my time trying to understand the machinations of one ('g'), and probably way too much time, with limited results, attempting to play the remaining ('g').

Without a doubt a thoroughly researched and concisely written blog helps to sharpen the mind. If I can keep this baby humming along for a few more years, the blogging will have been worth the effort. Aside from the mind enhancing value, blogging is fun. You should try it.