Is it arrogant to write a blog?

Maybe. Probably. I'm gonna do it anyway.

I've thought about it for awhile, what will the theme be? What do I have to say that is so important that the whole of internet connected humanity just NEEDS to hear it?  What could I say that any of the great thinkers past or present haven't already more eloquently addressed? Will it just be an excuse to present the world with the version of myself that I want to be? Probably. Will it make a valuable contribution to important discussions that shape ideas, policy, and worldviews? Probably not.

Here's a justification I could use...  I have a colleague (who has become a friend) to whom life has dealt a particularly tough hand, namely, that he is obligated every day to share a 12' square cubicle with me.  This physical proximity makes it inevitable that on any given morning he will be regaled with all manner of sarcasm, snark, poorly thought-through outrage, and incomplete thoughts regarding whatever I happen to have read, heard on the news, or just be annoyed about that day.

".....So I'm reading this book, have you read (whatever random book I most recently got from the library)? It's about (Blah blah blah). You HAVE to read it ASAP so we can talk about it....."

I know that many of the other people in my life bear this burden as well,  although maybe none so tangibly as my cube mate.  The need to be prepared at any moment of the day to endure some political pontification or pseudo-philosophical rant that comes into my head is a high price to pay for being my friend, I guess I should value those people.

There we go, it's not arrogant, I'll be doing it for my friends.  I'll do it to bleed off a little of the mental pressure that causes those verbal eruptions, then at least people can interact with them on their own terms, voluntarily when (if) they want to actually go read this blog.

What will the theme be? I have no idea.  No, scratch that, the theme is going to be  whatever I want to talk about on that day.  I just noticed that I wrote 'talk' and not 'write' in the previous sentence.  I do want it to be 'talking', as in, a dialogue.  I have been accused of being naive and idealistic.  I'm the kind of idealist that gets grabbed hard by the the quixotic theme in 'The Newsroom', who gets worked up about how things 'are supposed to be'.  With that admission, there is part of me that hopes this blog might turn into a constructive forum to learn about and discuss a variety of topics.  To have intelligent debate, to engage with and learn from people who disagree with you, to challenge you to think...

So there we go, the backdrop, the reasoning, the compelling argument that leads to no other conclusion than that I must write this blog.  It's for my friends, it's to elevate the debate, it's to make conversation on the internet more productive, I hope it ends up being a little funny, and it's definitely not a cleverly camouflaged text selfie to show the world how deeply thoughtful I am.....


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