A Thought

When you begin blogging, you start getting a compulsion to blog almost anything that comes up. Lord knows it's happened to me, and I know- or can tell- that it happens to many (most? all?) others. And true to my neurotic self, I make lists of what to blog, and then never get around to it.

Which is a blessing in disguise. Because the cure for this compulsion? Is to just let the urge blow over. Give it some time (or a little procrastination), and the urge passes, either because the intended post becomes irrelevant (either because it's old news, if it's a news item, or because it doesn't apply anymore, if it's a personal thing) or you just don't feel the urge to talk about it anymore. (When actually blogging, I've found this is also a solution to a related phenomenon, the compulsion to stick in links for every last thing. And no, this post has nothing to do with the comment below.)

Clarence Thomas was once asked why, unlike other justices, he asks few if any questions during oral arguments. He answered that, first, he's noticed that most of the questions asked are unnecessary- the justice (or any judge, I'd say) asking them knows the answer already, and is trying to make some other point (if that). He also gave another, more personal, answer: He was raised speaking Gullah, an African-American (literally) dialect of the Carolina coast.
He didn't speak standard English until relatively late, and then, for a while, only with a thick accent. As a result, he was somewhat embarrassed to speak up in school, and even when he began to speak well, this reluctance carried over to law school and beyond. One thing he observed, thanks to this trait, was that if one has a question, it will invariably be asked by someone else.

And so it is in the blogosphere. Want to mention a news item? Someone else- likely with more exposure- surely will do so, or already has.

So what to do? Should I simply collect my links into one spot, tell my readers to go to them, and give up?

Of course not. Blogs are, at least, a great place to vent, and just maybe I'll occasionally have something original to say. I'll have more to post later. But for now, just these general thoughts. Have a great week, all!