In this life, there is nothing more "hardcore" than love

David Johnson

Fourteen months ago, I had never read a blog, much less posted to one. While I was an avid reader of message boards and forums, there was something lacking. It felt like there was too much anonymity on the internet, and no one was willing to be held accountable for their views. One of my first blog posts dealt with this feeling. Prior to this, I had written an essay for a composition class entitled E-rosion of Accountability, and that was ultimately what encouraged me to explore this phenomenon we call blogging. I wanted to own my opinions in a world full of people that often times seem too afraid to raise their hand, raise their voice, and say “Hey, this is who I am, and this is what I believe in!”

Blogging for me has had its share of ups and downs. When I first began writing Wandering the Ether, I had no readers. This was somewhat frustrating because it was my belief that I had so much to share, so much I wanted to give. Eventually, through communities like MyBlogLog, and various traffic exchange sites, I was able to begin my journey down the winding road of social networking. This allowed me to not only increase my readership, but also to discover the wonderful variety of characters out there on the web. When I consider the difference it makes in one’s blogging, to actually have people you know care enough to come back and read what you have to say, it really does make it all worthwhile.

I had a literature professor who inadvertently said it best, while giving a lecture on the value of collections of letters written by dead authors: “Snail mail is dead. Everything is emails now. Should you people become famous authors, there will be no letters to remember you by after you are gone.” And it dawned on me that, actually there would be; blogging. This was an epiphany of sorts for me. It reinvigorated my desire to blog, and inspired new purpose and meaning to the act of blogging for me. I want for my daughter to be able to look back on my blog, and understand who I was. I want others to read my blog, and realize that they are not alone in this crazy, beautiful, human experience.

For me, blogging is an explorative, growth based process. Many times I start out intending to write about a specific issue, taking a certain stance, and by the time I am through writing, I realize that I have arrived at a point which is sometimes completely different than where I began. I believe that as writers, we need to allow ourselves to be open to this evolution of perception. Nothing is ever written in stone, and ideas are meant to be challenged. There are truths about our existence that are still waiting to be revealed, and the only way for us to find them is to communicate and share with one another, and blogging is a fantastic way to accomplish this exchange.

I have never blogged to make money, and I have never used advertising on my blog, and as far as Wandering the Ether is concerned, I never will. This is strictly a labor of love. My greatest desire is that when people visit my blog, they will take the time to actually read what I have written, feel it in their hearts, and decrypt it in their minds. If, through the act of writing I can gain new awareness, and alter my own impressions… then who is to say that the same effect cannot be achieved through others reading? Blogging is a truly magnificent reciprocal exchange. It’s giving and taking, affirming and challenging. We all have a message and blogging enables us to deliver it.

To those of you who are leery about diving in, or consider blogging to perhaps be too revealing, I will say this. You only live once, and that time is now. Be proud of who you are, embrace your beliefs, and let the world know that your voice counts. I know that it is tempting to hold back, and sometimes necessary, (we live under an ever-present umbrella of conformity and self-censorship), but the only way that true change can ever be enacted, is if we gather up our courage and speak our peace. Think of ideas as dominos all lined up in a row, all you need to do is gently nudge that first one, and the rest is herstory.