To blog or not to blog..
It seems in these days of people posting their personal journals on the web, whether or not to blog has become a moot point. But i actually did give it some thought.
I once published a small regional newsletter for people with the chronic illnesses of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. The thing i liked most was the opportunity to share my personal experience coping with the illness. The thing i liked least was the awful responsibility to get it right; to be absolutely accurate relaying medical information and to offer opinions without offending patients, doctors or other support organizations.
A blog really gives me the best of my old newsletter. I get the opportunity to share what it feels like to be me, a person living with an unpredictable chronic illness.... the opportunity to share what i know about copng with my illness and last but not least, the opportunity to share some of my passion with living.
It doesn't require editing and printing and folding and stamping and addressing and hauling it all to the post ofiice. It doesn't come from any organization, so i don't have to worry about who i offend. If you don't like what i have to say, you don't have to read me. And although i always try my best to get medical information right, i don't have to worry that my interpretation will fall into strict medical guidelines. I feel free to speculate, knowing that in a blog, speculation is expected.
Unlike writing for publication, i don't feel i have to always have a point to make.. and i won't have to worry about editors cutting the substance from the article with clever editing. I don't have to worry about grammer or punctuation....
I'm liking this better all of the time.
Of course, there will be no place to hide myself, but I really am an old hippy in the best sense of that description and perhaps it is time to just let it all hang out and find out what i have to say. Let the games begin...
It seems in these days of people posting their personal journals on the web, whether or not to blog has become a moot point. But i actually did give it some thought.
I once published a small regional newsletter for people with the chronic illnesses of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. The thing i liked most was the opportunity to share my personal experience coping with the illness. The thing i liked least was the awful responsibility to get it right; to be absolutely accurate relaying medical information and to offer opinions without offending patients, doctors or other support organizations.
A blog really gives me the best of my old newsletter. I get the opportunity to share what it feels like to be me, a person living with an unpredictable chronic illness.... the opportunity to share what i know about copng with my illness and last but not least, the opportunity to share some of my passion with living.
It doesn't require editing and printing and folding and stamping and addressing and hauling it all to the post ofiice. It doesn't come from any organization, so i don't have to worry about who i offend. If you don't like what i have to say, you don't have to read me. And although i always try my best to get medical information right, i don't have to worry that my interpretation will fall into strict medical guidelines. I feel free to speculate, knowing that in a blog, speculation is expected.
Unlike writing for publication, i don't feel i have to always have a point to make.. and i won't have to worry about editors cutting the substance from the article with clever editing. I don't have to worry about grammer or punctuation....
I'm liking this better all of the time.
Of course, there will be no place to hide myself, but I really am an old hippy in the best sense of that description and perhaps it is time to just let it all hang out and find out what i have to say. Let the games begin...
posted by Joanne Brayden at 9:28 PM
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