Being relatively new to both I hadn't formed any hard and fast opinions about either, although obviously, I don't have many objections.
However, my friend did believing that both of these were basically superficial, narcissistic forums and that blogging, particularly, was time-consuming to read and offered no more than self-indulgent, stream-of- consciousness meanderings that are of little or no valure.
After my ego regained some stability (feeling backhandedly offended now that I am a contributor to both), I realized that in order to fully recover my confidence and reenter the blogging world, I needed to step back and objectively consider my experience of both.
To they provide a canopy of connectivity; a canopy under which a myriad of miracles await their bloom.
And connectivity, in part, inspires dialogue, unites hearts, cultivates tolerance, extends empathy, expands ideas and nurtures genius.. It makes the world accessible and approachable, yet expansive beyond mortal reason. It increases the odds for miracles exponentially.
An minor example of that occurred the other day when I was trying to recall an exact quote I had heard the space/time physicist, David Lewis Anderson, make on the Coast to Coast radio show some weeks earlier. Mr. Anderson has a facebook page and after that show I sent him a message applauding his work and we became facebook friends.
But on this day as I sat at my laptop attempting to recall the specific wording, I glanced at the open ichat window, and who should be online and available but David Lewis Anderson! On the spot I was able to inquire about his quote, and he graciously answered me. Within two minutes, my dilemma was solved.
To me that is a small miracle, and as the world gets further connected with such technologies, the odds are increased for such little miracles.
What could be wrong with that?
I see nothing narcissistic or indulgent in taking advantage of every opportunity we can to participate in changing and bettering our world by remaining more easily connected to those we know, those we love; and even to those we don't yet know but with whom share commonalities.
What difference does it make how?
It is all too easy to feel alienated, pessimistic and alone in a world that is not at all collectively clear on what it is doing or where it is going.
Why not take advantage of a tool that allows you to wish someone who is far away a happy birthday or good luck on a new job or lend a supportive word when they are struggling or a hit of praise when they have accomplished a good?
You never know the impact such recognition could have.
Of course, there are down sides. What doesn't have a down side? There will be vain and vapid and exploitive people abusing the venue, but those people exist everywhere; yet that doesn't stop us from leaving our homes.
As for blogging, I've come to realize that it takes a fair amount of courage and blind faith to distribute your thoughts to an unseen and largely unknown audience; one that could number anywhere from zero to thousands.
With each day that I sit at this computer struggling to shut out the niggling voice in my head as it whispers derogatory asides about my incompetence while I try to release the thick knot in my stomach reminding me that I could at any moment be buried alive by my literary insolence; the greater my respect and admiration becomes for the millions of others who reach out into the dark, pixel-laden void of cyber space to make their mark.
Each time we write, we may be feeding the potential for a miracle.
Here is another example: It was from Julie Powell's efforts to blog about and cook her way through Julia Child's cookbook that a movie was born.
That movie inspired friend of mine to emerge from a deep funk and subsequently discover a passionate interest in cooking.
As a result of her new culinary passion, it has brought she and her husband closer together than they have been able to be since her husband's prostate cancer changed the physical nature of their relationship many years ago.
They now laugh and feast together with the same deliberate, delicate and tactile intimacy of the lovemaking they can no longer enjoy.
As her husband recently proclaimed, "That movie was the best thing that has happened to me in ten years!"
And that movie was born from an inconsequential blog.
I also have faith that there is a higher power at work here and that what I am seeing and experiencing is only a tiny portion of what is truly unfolding.
But for whatever reason, I am compelled to write. I don't know why. What I do know is that I am not going to stop, and if the opportunity to connect with other people is increased by hammering out my thoughts in a blog or by checking in on friends via facebook, then I'm all in.
If other people find cyber communications to be vapid and feeble, so be it.
At this stage of the communication game, I don't really give a damn.
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