No such thing as too much information
I see my therapist Gary every other Friday. When I come in and sit down, he asks me how I'm doing. Not every visit, but many times the topic of my blogging comes up. I explain to him that the more I'm writing the better I feel. Gary is not a writer. He's a good man and he's clever and he has many interesting stories, but he is not a writer. He's not a sharer. So when I say I feel better because I've been writing more, he just smiles politely. This week, a friend was lamenting to me about how complicated life was getting. He blurted out, "sometimes I just wish it could be like it was five years ago when everything was great." I laughed at him, "Really?! Not me! Every year is better than the last as far as I'm concerned. Not that it sucked five years ago, but that was then. I don't want to go back to all that. I just want to concentrate on this year."
Rich teases me because I pull out the camera or iPhone so much. I record cute things Ian does. I capture clever license plates. I share funny things anyone says on Twitter. But I love to go back through all that. I had an unplanned vet appointment for Isis yesterday and had to wait a long time as they squeezed us in. Sitting in an empty exam room, I could scroll through my camera roll or Twitter feed or blog to stroll down memory lane. I don't care that most of that is public. I just love having it for myself.
It pleases me that I don't necessarily have to have Disney movies on my phone to entertain the boy. I just have to have tons of "b roll" footage of him doing anything and he's fascinated to see that little boy in the phone doing stuff just like he does. We all like to see others going through familiar scenarios.
That's what I love about writing online. I like sharing the mundane magic of our everyday lives. I like knowing we're not the only ones struggling with toddler molars or pool chemicals or the astronomical cost of concrete. And there is some small risk in sharing, but there is so much more for me personally to be gained.
Am I a writer? Probably. But I'm also a photographer, a historian, a journalist, an editor and an artist. I'm an over-sharer and an sympathizer. The world of blogging (and by blogging I mean sharing my life on the Internet) has forever changed my world for the better. I am no novelist. I'm barely a poet. But I am a writer.
Remembering -- no, motivating myself to write on a regular basis is that same struggle others have with going to the gym. I come up with every single reason to not do it, but invariably after each post I feel worlds better than before. So while someone who goes to the gym may not call themselves an athlete, we are all putting in the time and energy and that deserves something. So yes, I am a writer. I'm a writer because I write.