Tagged – but I can Break the Rules

Just to be honest, I probably would have in any case.

Tony from Thoughts from the Heart on the Left tagged me with the meme created by L. L. Barkat, so here goes, as I break rules.

I’m going to copy the rules from Tony’s post rather than the original, just to be a bit perverse. They are:

• Write about 5 specific ways blogging has affected you, either positively or negatively.
• Link back to the person who tagged you
• Link back to this parent post
• Tag a few friends or five, or none at all
• Post these rules— or just have fun breaking them

I would have not posted them, but there was that pesky permission not to do so, and then also how would you know in what ways I break them? Indeed, the permission to break the rules is the main reason I responded, as I generally dislike memes and getting tagged, and all that goes with it.

So as for five specific ways blogging has affected me positively or negatively, allow me to provide any number but five.

I think I was created to blog. I was merely waiting for the idea of blogging to come along so that I could fulfill my destiny by writing long blog posts that very few people read. I have opinions about everything, and a relatively high opinion of my own opinions (funny how that works), so I like to talk about them, and quite frankly there aren’t that many people who want to sit around an listen as much as I want to talk.

Enter blogging. It doesn’t matter any more! I can imagine the legions of readers of my blog checking and rechecking their readers to see if I have let more wisdom flow so that they might take it in.

If someone tells me that I have few readers, and cites my SiteMeter report as evidence, I can simply point out that SiteMeter doesn’t get all those folks who have subscribed via Bloglines, Google Reader, or some other service. In addition, who knows how many people, overwhelmed with appreciation for my prose, e-mail pages to their friends or share them via some of the aforementioned readers or aggregators.

Consider that I used to regard it as a good day when a Sunday School class of a dozen people wanted to listen to me talk. Now I can just go to the computer, pour out my thoughts, and make them available to an audience of millions. Admittedly, most of those millions will fail entirely to read my stuff or even know that it exists. But they won’t tell me they didn’t read it, and if nobody tells me, it’s an inconvenient fact that I can conveniently ignore.

If one has discovered a technology that provides a tool that allows one to become completely fulfilled in one’s calling in life, what possible need can there be for other reasons? Thus, reasons 2-5 have been superseded by the awesome and sublime power of reason #1.

As for tagging, think of it this way. If you read this, and felt that you just can’t resist saying something about what blogging means to you, then consider yourself tagged. If not, well, not so much.

PS: If you didn’t read this, please don’t tell me. It will disillusion me, and I really like my illusions. I’m planning on keeping them.