Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Thoughts on self congratulatory bloggers, like me.

Sometimes when I go back and read my own blog past, I wonder if it is even my writing, or if it is my family that I am posting about.

I mean, I think for the most part we are all pretty happy people, with some good doses of negative character flaws thrown in for good reason. We get along well enough, and my kids will possibly escape life without too many therapy bills (maybe), but we aren't that happy. Yet, this blog pretty much makes it seems as if we are just shiny, happy people holding hands 90 percent of the time.

And when I am not talking about my family, I am mostly talking about all the awesome things I do in my community, for my community, for the earth, etc....

This blog absolutely fills the call for self congratulatory blogging.

I have friends who scoff at the whole concept of blogging as it is, and especially the slice of life varieties like this one, which seem to serve no purpose other than stroking one's own ego.

But that is kind of the point of this blog: ego stroking.

Writing here gives me the space to focus on the positives in my life, to think about what is working, and to show off my little good ideas. I try to throw occasional doses of reality in here and there, but like I am really going to tell you ... well, everything?

For example, I really had to resist the urge to come running to the computer yesterday to post a blog entry about gluing yellow paper strips into a little egg crate to serve as a home made hay trough for a plastic horse my son was playing with. I was stoked at finding another little alternative to buying more cheap plastic. My kid wanted hay, so I made him hay. That would have been pretty self congratulatory, had I posted it.

But, anyway, to the point. Self congratulatory, navel gazing, hand wringing, blathering, and mostly egotistical (and often quite boring) blogging suits me pretty well. And since I doubt this blog will ever win me any prizes or make me rich, I guess I'll continue on with it. In fact, I have a few thoughts I want to throw together for some later posts.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I was showering this a.m. and generally getting ready (and all kids still asleep because of a two-hour snow delay so no interruptions) I was blogging in my head. "I wish I could just get these thoughts to go straight to the computer," I thought, "without all that unnecessary typing and revising." Then I had some unkind thoughts brush through my head and I realized, oh, it's a good thing to have to think things through a bit.

You know that "Dance like nobody's watching" saying? We should change it to "Blog like nobody's reading."

keep up the fine work--navel gazing and all.

Shannon said...

aww, thanks uumomma. I love that, blog like nobody's reading, lol.

I told my brother the other day that I sometimes got embarrassed about my blog and he suggested making it private. But that isn't really blogging though right? I could just journal if that was what i wanted. So, blog like nobody is reading but....Its weird how attached one can get to a blog!

Ia m glad to have you reading though, and I am enjoying reading other UU blogs as well.

Lizard Eater said...

Blog like nobody's reading -- yeah! And I like the navel-gazing posts. I think a blog is the perfect place for it.

Sarah said...

focusing on the positive is super important. i love your blog and am sorry i have neglected it for the last 3 months.

*ChavBurner* GRRRRRRRR!! said...

yeh man navel gazin...woooaah some nice navels out der....lol
anyways, nice blog - blog like no ones reading - thanx 4 that xXx

*ChavBurner* GRRRRRRRR!! said...

wow, r u guyz in new york or somethin? im in UK so maybe tht y u sit ther readin ur blog at a message that came thru at like % or ^ in the mornin lol :P hav fun bloggin peeps ill keep readin xXx

Bookshelf

Shannon's currently-reading book montage

The Complete Poems
Collected Poems
Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963-2011
Anti-Bias Education for young children and ourselves
I Laugh So I Won't cry: kenya's Women Tell the Stories of Their Lives
How to Be Compassionate: a Handbook for Creating Inner Peace and a Happier World
Children
The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach Advanced Reflections
The Secret Garden


Shannon's favorite books »

Shannon's read-in-2012 book montage

Rethinking Early Childhood Education
Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children
Safari Animals
Young Children Reinvent Arithmetic: Implications of Piaget's theory (early childhood education series
Total Learning: Developmental Curriculum for the Young Child
Clinical Supervision and Teacher Development


Shannon's favorite books »
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