I've decided it takes a certain amount of courage to be a blogger. One of my co-workers agrees with me. She's a blog-stalker, like I've never met before. But I can't blame her; it can be an extremely enlightening activity. (She got me started, it's true.) It's kind of like a way more intense version of people-watching.

But I digress. Easy to be a blog-stalker, much harder to actually walk the walk.

Writing, taken as a thing in itself, can be very useful. I'm someone who frequently writes emails to myself. Now you must understand that this is not like journaling. Journaling is much more permanent. Writing in a journal is ink on bound paper, to be filed when the last page is reached, for posterity to peruse. It's serious stuff. But writing yourself emails--two clicks and it's gone forever. In that way it's served as a very healthy way for me to vent pent-up feelings, make important decisions, clarify my thoughts on this or that issue.

And of course it's all very safe and internal. And temporary.

But if you happen to be a person who worries, from time to time, about what other people might think (not that I have any sympathy whatsoever with such people...); if you fear others' judgment; if you sometimes feel not quite good enough or smart enough or clever or cute or witty or stylish or interesting or disinterested or political or apolitical or domestic or bohemian or married or single or employed or educated or (adjectives ad nauseum) enough, blogging might not be for you. Your thoughts, the events of your life, your friends, family, interests, activities, pictures--the idea is that it's all out there in the open for all manner of observers. So the question becomes, am I ok enough with myself to publish myself? And that is the question.

...

I therefore issue a call to all blog-stalkers, would-be bloggers whose fears have hitherto kept them in silence: join with me, won't you, and let us blog together above our fears.