Why do I do this?

Recently, at a conference I was attending, someone asked me why I blogged. They didn't really see the point of it all. "Isn't this simply the satisfaction of some narcisstic need?", she asked. Well, I decided to tell you what I told her.

There are lots of reasons why people blog. They range from mere getting attention, to feeling important, to exposing injustice to ... well, the list is actually endless. There are millions of bloggers and there are millions of reasons for blogging. Mine, I like to think, are anything but grandiose. In fact, I believe they are really humble. And there are five (just a handful) of them:

1. It is my firm belief that there is not enough thinking going on the world. I'm not talking about mere mental processes, I'm talking about serious, deep engagement with things that matter, like what it means to be human, what role do we play in our own lives, why are there so many "problems" in the world, and why such a beautiful place as our Earth is being wantonly destroyed before our eyes.
2. William James once said, "A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." I couldn't agree with him more, and I don't think that such "thinking" is to our collective advantage. It is used for personal advantage, to be sure, but selfishness isn't a human characteristic that need be writ large.
3. All of us are in the same boat together. It's called Reality. It's not an easy thing to deal with. We can use all the help we can get. There is only so much we can know, but there is an infinite amount of what we think we know. That's not always helpful. The more reasonably we can agree can make a huge difference in how things play out.
4. We humans have a pivotal, if not central, role in what we call Creation or Nature or The World ... it doesn't matter what we call it. None of us chose to be here, but we're here nevertheless ... all of us. We, whether we like it or not, have more to say about how things play out than any other species on the planet, and I think it's about time we start living up to our potential.
5. In the end, it is up to us -- all of us -- whether my and your children and grandchildren live in a world worth living in. This is not an exaggeration, it is a fact. We humans have been blessed (cursed?) with the notion of responsibility. It's time for us to 'fess up.

In other words, at heart, I blog because I want people to stop, reflect on what they are thinking, and if possible, rethink what needs rethinking, not just for themselves, but for all our sakes'. Yes, that's a pretty big charge, I know.

Life's not simple, and it's surely not easy, but it's not complicated either, at least if we don't make it so. It is, however, manageable, if we go about it with a clear head. We are faced with innumerable challenges and choices every day, and we can really only make headway if we acknowledge this and do something about it. But, whatever we do, we should have thought about it first.

What you think is not nearly as important as the fact that you have thought about it. Opinions, as it is said, should be the result of thinking, not a substitute for it.