This morning, I opened my email inbox to a note from Tom Matrullo responding to a question or two I had, as well as containing a genteel supposition that one of the fine things about blogging was the renewed opportunity for friendship missed or foregone in the otherwise real world.
Then, late this day I stumbled across this bit of scribbling on Dean Esmay’s blog, and was reminded of the feeling I have had when meeting Euan Semple for the first time, or Dave Pollard, or Brian Moffatt, or the Happy Tutor, or Ton Zylstra, or Martin Roell, or Roland Tanglao, or Boris Mann, or Troy Angrignon, or ….
We all had something in common, felt like new and/or old friends, depending … but friends, nevertheless.
Why am I telling you this? If you’re a blogger you have no idea of the kind of instant bonding blogging does when one blogger meets another personally. It is not “getting to know you” but continuing a long, strong, fun friendship. I can only liken it to the very best of college friends getting together after several years. Why is this so? Perhaps you have some explanation. Perhaps it’s because bloggers blog partly to get out their views, but also a need to unleash some creative juices bottled up in the stresses or boredoms of daily life. And when they meet others, they recognize it. In my case, in the blogs I read, I truly admire independent thinkers who are not predictable ideologues of the right or left (even though on certain issues they may be quite consistent in their views).
In the case of Smash, he was every bit as sharp, independent, noble and admirable as I imagined. In the case of Stephen Green, he was every bit as stylish, witty, intelligent and independent as I imagined. In other words, both of them were reflected by their classy blogs (UH OH, I AM IN DEEP TROUBLE IF THAT APPLIES TO ME).
In other words, if you are blogging or thinking of blogging, here is the bottom line to always remember:
Blogging isn’t only about your number of hits.
It’s about your friendships.
In a world of streamlined, reengineered, what’s-in-it-for-me, bared teeth superficiality, this aspect of blogging is important, i think.
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