Reflections in the Mirror

As I've begun to reacquaint myself with several of my favorite blogs, one issue that a lot of my fellow bloggers deal with in their profile or "About Me" section is why he/she blogs. On more than one occasion, the host asks out loud if he/she might possibly be narcissistic.

My reaction to this question is that if bloggers are narcissistic, then it's no different than any author, reporter, painter, sculptor, artist, actor, poet, chef, etc. To be quite honest, I think most all of us are a bit narcissistic and that it's healthy to be so. We know ourselves better than anyone else and so it's quite natural to enjoy our own company and reflection.

Narcissism only becomes a serious problem IF you become so enamored with your own visage that you ignore the concerns, wants and needs of others. But, in my book, if you can't love and spend time with yourself, you'll never be able genuinely to love anyone else.

So, why do I blog? There are many reasons. For starters, I have a lot to say and, since I'm not a social creature, blogging offers me the opportunity to share my thoughts with others. The collarary to this is that I receive feedback from you, my readers. This provides me with an opportunity to meet new people in this virtual realm and even to feel a sense of community. One of my quasi-regular readers hails from Belgium (a shout out to Bert) and, since I've never traveled to Europe and probably never will, I've had the chance to converse with nice young fellow that I would not have met otherwise!

Since I don't seem to be capable of communicating well verbally, my favored form of communication is through writing. The blog format allows me to work out things in my head and to get them down on paper, so to speak.

I also like to see my words in print. Sure, it's an example of my vanity leaking out, but what the hell? Vanity, like narcissism, ain't such a bad thing as long as one doesn't go overboard.

Since I tend to write a lot (in spurts, that is), it gives me a place to house my various ramblings. Since I haven't made a big effort to learn or follow all the tips and tricks one should employ to drive traffic to this blog, it's not like thousands of people read what I write anyway.

I'm actually glad I have a small readership. As specific blogs become more popular, they create their own staggering expectations. The blog host[s] feel compelled to write even when they don't really have much to impart. Since we live in a society where growth is a paramount goal, one could easily stress themselves out trying to keep to an unnatural and unsustainable writing schedule in order to bring more and more readers to their blog.

I write when I feel like writing. Lately, I've been writing a lot. At other times though, I write very little. I've been known not to write one entry on this blog for several weeks at a time.

And there's one more reason I blog -- To educate. When I started TRT, there weren't a lot of blogs out there that deal with Taoism and so I wanted to share the concepts of Taoism with others. As time has progressed, I've expanded my educational efforts by adding the topics of fibromyalgia, Klinefelter's Syndrome and Asperger's Syndrome.