The Truth About Blogging

I have fallen slack in the task of blogging. That I call it a "task" may give you the idea it is loathsome or difficult. That is far from the truth. Rather, in the past year, on the eve of posting a blog entry, there has been some unexpected horror in the world or else some serious topic has garnered the nation's attention - thus, rendering my decidedly more frou-frou account of random esoterica pointless. Said differently, bad things have happened about every time I've posted a blog. 

I have found it difficult to complain in a light-hearted way about trivia things as a form of entertainment when real, awful things have been happening. I could wax poetic on what political, social, economic, or artistic angle seems appropriate. I could offer my take on a tragedy - which would elicit both agreement and rebuke, neither of which does much for me personally and certainly does not further a solution to any problem. One problem of social media is the inability to have much of a calm, rational, substantive conversation involving opposing views; it is too easy to simply block anything/anyone that we disagree with. As a sometime author and teacher, I would be very unCarnegie-esque in not making friends and influencing people.

Take the still too recent shooting at a school in Florida, for example. I wanted to say something at the moment I first saw the news report and in the days that followed, to express my emotions like so many others - and perhaps propose solutions like others have. With an earful/eyeful of details, it occurred to me to think backwards: The shooter should not have been able to enter the school. Before that, the shooter should not have had access to the firearms. Before that, the shooter should not have had the desire to kill. And so on. If I express my thoughts, I open myself to criticism at many points and on many levels which does nothing productive in the end. We who were not involved in the original event merely lay wounded and ashamed. If there is an agenda pushed by anyone, I find I must either agree (disagree) or risk being accused of taking the opposing side - typically through a practiced retort like "Your silence is complicity" or similar mantras that easily fit on marching placards.

The world and the things in it are much more complicated that the majority of us would wish. Few things have simple solutions. Talk is cheap, too. Political ambitions rise and fall on so-called back-room deals that have nothing to do with solving problems or representing the wishes of the people back home. Smoke and mirrors still exist. And the drama, whatever the event, is fresh fodder for so many whose lifeblood is drama itself. Did you see what I just did there? I wrote in a decidedly neutral way so every side could believe I was writing in support of their side. But is this a suitable style of writing? For a blog? 

I guess blogging can serve a purpose aside from the ranting and raving of too many social media pundits. I can practice my craft - and walk the thin line between uncertainty and absolutism. For now, I shall wish every blog post in the weeks to come were something akin to Valentine's Day, full of love poetry, pretty flowers, and perhaps cute fluffy bunnies. Unfortunately, writing it will not make it so.

Until then...back to fiction, where I decide how horrible the world can be.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
(C) Copyright 2010-2018 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.