Why write a blog?

 

The question is...why would I want to start a blog?

There’s a multitude of answers really.

The first one is that to be honest, I’m getting sick of social media. 

I left Twitter because it just felt toxic, full of keyboard bullies.

I never really ‘got’ Twitter and how it works. For starters, who’s ever known me to speak less than 150 characters? I’m not succinct enough for that.

And why all the hatred? It’s always seemed a venomous platform to me. Sadly, over the last four or five years, Facebook is heading in the same direction.

I understand it’s there for all of us to give our opinions. And let’s face it, the way the events have happened over the last few years, there’s plenty to have opinions on, but what used to be a place I went to get away from the humdrum routine of life, has now become even worse than that!

I stopped watching the news years ago because they only want to talk about the contentious, nasty side of life. I don’t need that. Life’s hard enough without voluntarily letting them make me feel worse every day.

But now, Social media is full of people who feel that they need to tell everyone what’s wrong with the World. Sadly, it’s taken over from a platform that I used to go to for fun. I understand that’s how it should be, everyone should be allowed to have their ‘voice.’ But it’s becoming too divisive for me. And I want to go there less and less.

Don’t get me wrong – people who know me personally will tell you that I’m opinionated and if I’ve got something to say, I’ll say it. But that will be in a face to face conversation. Not having a go at people in an arena where it’s not going to make a blind bit of difference.

However, you’d be right in thinking that I have a lot to say on Facebook – and what’s more, I’m going to be doing it here as well.

What I try not to do is get involved in slanging matches. If I’m having a rant, I try not to make it political. I try not to make it religious. I try not to aim it at any one person. I tend to speak generally.

Is it because I have a huge ego and feel that I need to be heard? Well, I’m not sure I have a huge ego. It’s a pretty good one, I’m happy in my skin and I quite like me (that took a lot of years though), but not so much that I think I’m anyone special.

So why do I want followers? I’m not really sure. I do think what I have to say will ring a bell with some people, may make some people laugh at times, and a multitude of other reasons. I’m not even sure that wanting followers is my main reason for writing a blog

What I’ve found out over the last 10 years or more, is that often, when I’m writing, it helps to clarify my own thoughts. I do it as much for me as for any other reason.

It helps me think and put my thoughts into a clear order. I’ve known myself to change my opinion during the writing of something.

Had I known that writing would do that, I’d have taken to writing a diary years ago (something I’ve never done).

In fact, until I joined Facebook, I didn’t really write anything. I’d keep scraps of paper with lists. I’d have notebooks with notes of things that I wanted to remember and could refer back to, but as to my thoughts, I never did.

Originally, I only joined Facebook in order to promote my discos. I’m not sure what happened, but along the way, that changed, and from never writing anything personal, I became the kind of person who would write drivel like this!

And one of the other reasons (and final one I’m going to talk about today), is to leave something in writing that my boys can read and understand their Dad a bit more.

I live 200 miles away from them and speak to them on a fairly regular basis, but they don’t really know what I’m like as a person anymore. 

I left them almost 11 years ago when my marriage broke up (at my instigation), and which was my fault. It caused a rift with both of them and it took a while for our relationships to get back on course.

Neither of them likes Social Media that much. Although they’re both on Facebook, James, the eldest hasn’t been on there for over 5 years and Henry, my youngest, only goes on there once in a blue moon. They just think it’s not a very nice place. In consequence, they hardly read anything I've written.

I’m hoping that they may well check this out once in a while and get a better idea of who their ‘old man’ is. Because I’m not the same person I was then.

Over the last 10 years, a lot has happened to make me feel differently, especially with my health issues which changed me and the way I think about life. Reading this may help them understand the man I’ve become.

And so,  that’s just a few reasons why I’ve chosen to write a blog.

I’m not sure what I’m going to write about, but I’ll do my best to try and make it entertaining.

If you’ve not subscribed to the newsletter yet, please do. It'll be a weekly thing, which will save you reading the blog every five minutes when I feel like contributing. And what's more, I’ll try to keep it entertaining and sometimes, even enlightening!

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Till next time...