Creativity is its own reward
I recently read a good article on blogging by Adam Curry (of MTV fame). Check it out. An interesting quote (in case you do not want to follow the link:
“[…] If you write everyday, your writing improves, your thinking improves.”
Right on! The magic of blogging revealed at last.
Its brain-training.
So, I suppose it’s good to know that not everybody is so hyper-critical of blogs. I mean, not everybody creates and updates a weblog because they want to be some rich, famous, writer jaunting off to exotic places on book tours. Some of us maintain and update our blogs simply because it’s good practice. It is a simple way of improving our writing. Something simple we can do every day to make our lives a little better. Like exercising, as he implies, or like brushing our teeth. Because I brush my teeth every damn day does NOT mean that I want to be a dentist when I grow up (whenever I may happen to reach that point and actually grow up, but that’s a topic for another blog. :~) I’m glad to see somebody finally gets it because, frankly, I’m sick of reading stories about weblogs where the author implies that our [webloggers] brains are all made of Swiss cheese and we really should throw in the towel and go back to watching cartoons.
A point he seemed to miss though. Some of us like to keep weblogs as a means of self-expression. This aspect has a really big reward system intrinsic for me. I have said before that art is it’s own reward. The best side-effect of creativity is that nobody can take it away from you and it contains, (sometimes) deeply embedded inside of it, it’s own reward. Nobody can renege on a reward for doing. Once you have done, once you have completed, once you have created….well….nobody can take it away. There’s pleasure in that for me. Just having done something, like a weblog, that I can look back upon and re-visit whenever I want; that I can enjoy and share with my friends and family; that is its own reward. I don’t need or want web-awards or recognition, in fact, I probably would not welcome it at this point. I’m not writing Carol’s Little World so that folks in Peoria stand up and take note of me. I’m writing it because I enjoy writing, I enjoy the catharsis that comes with writing as an extra side-effect, and because blogger provides me with a form of self-expression which I would otherwise not have. For me, this makes all the difference. I could care less (no offense) about folks in Peoria, media types in LA, VJs from MTV or whoever else happens along to my little corner of the web.
I guess I secretly hope that Carol’s Little World doesn’t get too crowded and nobody looks to long in my face. If you know what I mean. There’s enjoyment and pleasure in anonymity. Although it is not quite rewarding as art. Actually, come to think of it, I much prefer art. But, the best part of it all? I don’t have to decide. I can have my surreptitous postings and get what I have to off my chest in the same weblog.
Isn’t life wonderful in Carol’s Little World? Wish you were here but I can’t let you in. Best I can do is say, “get your own damn weblog. This one is taken. Sorry, only one to a customer. You’re welcome here as long as you do not stay too long,” etc. etc.
Until next time, this is Carol, the Carol in “Carol’s Little World” signing off.
