A Question of Personal Law
Once again, I find myself struggling with a hiatus in my blogging. I take refuge in three primary excuses: One, the war has left me dispirited; Two, I’m swamped with projects like taxes, refinancing, house repair, and helping my wife market her business: Three, plain old bloggers’ block, i.e., being convinced that I have nothing worth writing about.
I need to make a simple decision. Do I want to keep the blog alive, or let it wither on the vine? Quite simply, I choose the former, which means that I need to address the three alleged culprits—the bogey-men—cited above.
Working backwards from number three, there’s only one way to deal with block—just put something up, and if it stinks, it stinks. This isn’t the same thing as the “writer’s block” that a professional writer sometimes faces, a situation in which the issue of quality is critical and being blocked is truly a problem. “Bloggers’ block”, on the other hand, is a phantom—an avoidance tactic--an excuse, as I said at the outset.
Excuse number two—being too busy. It’s valid up to a point, but only to a point. How often are you genuinely too busy to set aside fifteen minutes to put something up? Again, if it stinks, it stinks. It’s more important to keep your blogging momentum going. I’ve yet to see a blogger, no matter how accomplished, who didn’t put up the occasional mediocre post. Why should I be afraid of being any different?
My first excuse—dispiritedness from the war—is trickier. Well, maybe one way of approaching it is to look at the question of Universal Law vs. Personal Law. There is no Universal Law that says that the ongoing occurrence of terrible events in the world requires one to be rendered incapable of blogging.
That’s strictly Personal Law. The advantage of Personal Law is that I’m the sole legislator. I don’t have to go through any rancorous committee hearings in order to rescind it.
I’m reminded of the days following Sept. 11 when the mantra was that, if you didn’t move forward with your personal plans--if you refrained from travel or going to entertainment venues, “the terrorists win.” The parallel is that, in allowing myself to be incapacitated from blogging because of the war, it’s a capitulation to the Bushman. It’s tantamount to saying that he wins.
Well, screw that! I’ll post gibberish if I have to in order to prevent the Texas Terrorist from having a say over my Personal Law. So bear with me as I try to stumble my way back into the blogosphere.
Once again, I find myself struggling with a hiatus in my blogging. I take refuge in three primary excuses: One, the war has left me dispirited; Two, I’m swamped with projects like taxes, refinancing, house repair, and helping my wife market her business: Three, plain old bloggers’ block, i.e., being convinced that I have nothing worth writing about.
I need to make a simple decision. Do I want to keep the blog alive, or let it wither on the vine? Quite simply, I choose the former, which means that I need to address the three alleged culprits—the bogey-men—cited above.
Working backwards from number three, there’s only one way to deal with block—just put something up, and if it stinks, it stinks. This isn’t the same thing as the “writer’s block” that a professional writer sometimes faces, a situation in which the issue of quality is critical and being blocked is truly a problem. “Bloggers’ block”, on the other hand, is a phantom—an avoidance tactic--an excuse, as I said at the outset.
Excuse number two—being too busy. It’s valid up to a point, but only to a point. How often are you genuinely too busy to set aside fifteen minutes to put something up? Again, if it stinks, it stinks. It’s more important to keep your blogging momentum going. I’ve yet to see a blogger, no matter how accomplished, who didn’t put up the occasional mediocre post. Why should I be afraid of being any different?
My first excuse—dispiritedness from the war—is trickier. Well, maybe one way of approaching it is to look at the question of Universal Law vs. Personal Law. There is no Universal Law that says that the ongoing occurrence of terrible events in the world requires one to be rendered incapable of blogging.
That’s strictly Personal Law. The advantage of Personal Law is that I’m the sole legislator. I don’t have to go through any rancorous committee hearings in order to rescind it.
I’m reminded of the days following Sept. 11 when the mantra was that, if you didn’t move forward with your personal plans--if you refrained from travel or going to entertainment venues, “the terrorists win.” The parallel is that, in allowing myself to be incapacitated from blogging because of the war, it’s a capitulation to the Bushman. It’s tantamount to saying that he wins.
Well, screw that! I’ll post gibberish if I have to in order to prevent the Texas Terrorist from having a say over my Personal Law. So bear with me as I try to stumble my way back into the blogosphere.
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