My Own Confession

I was visiting a friend's blog yesterday. As I read through her recent posts, I encountered something very saddening and painful. In her confession MegsG-H admits that she came very close to posting a farewell message to her readers. Yes, it's true: just weeks into her blogging experience, she is considering a more passive and voyeuristic role in the blogosphere. Her rationale is that her blog is too much of chore, something that she has to make time for every day.

MegsG-H, I know exactly how your feel. As you know, all three contributors to The Rhetorical Situation had been talking about creating a blog for a very long time. And it was not until last week that Solon took the initiative to put our plans into action. It was very exciting to get this thing up and running. However, I must confess that, much like you, I am today far less enthusiastic about the blog. Yes, it was fun to talk about the possibilities of The Rhetorical Situation. But it’s not as much fun to actually do.

In my own confession here, I know that I risk breaking the hearts of my fellow contributors, as well as the hearts of my many devoted readers who have come to expect from my posts profound cultural commentaries, the likes of which only emerge when one is compelled by an intense and genuine passion to contribute to the advancement of the human race and its conditions. But it is important, I suppose, that my readers not place to much weight on my contributions. While I am always sincere in my posts, I caution readers against viewing me as an instrument of divine social intervention. The reason: these posts don't come as effortlessly as they may seem, as I hate writing.

That's right. Despite my decision to pursue a career in academia (in an English department, no less), I hate writing. It's just too damn hard, and it takes me forever. And for this very reason, much like MegsG-H, I find blogging too much of a chore. However, I'm going to hang in there, and I encourage Megs to do the same. It will be good for us, especially with dissertations looming over our heads. Since graduate students rarely write as often as we should (usually just at the end of each semester), let our blogs serve as public journals. By doing so, we will learn to generate words more readily, and writing will become less difficult and, subsequently, less of a chore. We may find that we look forward to blogging and perhaps writing in general. Accordingly, blogging may ultimately help us finish our dissertations quicker. I know that Harrogate and I, having both taken Peter Elbow’s advice to heart, believe this. (I don’t mean to exclude you here Solon, but you’re already well on your way to finishing your dissertation, and what’s more, you and I have never really discussed this point.)