'To Blog or Not to Blog'... (My First Post) / Mare's Musings

I’ve always liked to write. I’m not very good at it but I’ve always enjoyed putting my thoughts and ideas down on paper. As a teenager I used to write poems and stories about all sorts of things. I’ve kept a Diary of sorts on and off over the years and I’ve always felt more comfortable expressing myself through the written word. In later years I’ve written a couple of songs, mostly for my church on a particular topic but my forte seems to be writing funny songs about people for milestone birthdays, farewells, anniversaries etc., I really enjoy this and have a lot of fun and laughs putting something clever together using a popular tune and sharing insights into the person through the words.

My Mother was always writing a new story about something. She taught Creative Writing at her local Community College and she also held a degree in Communication at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College. She was a great observer of life and a lot of her stories are written about actual people and incidents. She travelled a lot on Public Transport and spent a good deal of time in hospitals and doctors surgeries due to ill health and always came back with a tale to tell that would inevitably end up becoming a story. Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit her ability to pen a good story, but my daughter did and has her own quite successful Blog.

So what has that got to do with anything, you ask? Well, I must confess that I’ve always had a bit of an unflattering opinion of why people blog, namely that they are mostly opinionated, egotistical, narcissistic, trumpet blowing, pontificating, blowhards who like the sound of their own keyboard clicking’, not to put too fine a point on it.

Now hang on, before you go screaming obscenities at your computer screen at this insult to bloggers everywhere, just hear me out. While there definitely are some of the aforementioned bloggers around, the more I contemplated and investigated the more I came to the conclusion that the majority of people that Blog just like to write, to talk, to communicate, to share, to engage with others, to invite reflection, to have an outlet for their creativity, and connect with people and events and happenings that make up their life.

Before I wrote this post I googled ‘Why do People Blog’. Lots of sites came up entitled ‘ 9 Reasons Why People Blog’ ‘ 15 Reasons Why People Blog’ ‘5 Reasons Why You Should Blog’ ‘The Psychology of Blogging’ just to mention a few. I read through some of the reasons but most of them didn’t really ring true for me except two that struck a chord 1. To tap into and satisfy my creative side and 2. To create a record. 

I especially want to share some of my Mum’s writings and share a bit of family history while maybe meeting some new people and learning some new things.

So, here I go, wading my way into the world of blogging and quite looking forward to the journey.

Cheers,

Mare