Why this thrall of blogdom, this heady rush, this swoon of reading ones words in a public forum – this seeming nudity in public? Why the need to reveal? Reassurance that we have something worth saying? Reassurance is like a sponge that sops up attention while never quite filling it. This seemingly universal thirst to blog is interesting to me. I like to think my motives are the same of any other frustrated writer, exacerbated by all the left-brain thinking required as a computer programmer. I recall St. Thomas Aquinas’s words of warning that as long as one cares what others think of you then you are far from the kingdom. And no one lived up to that better than him. Can you imagine an intellectual giant being sanguine about being called the “Dumb Ox”? That modesty and reluctance to show-off is such a sure mark of the saints. St. Therese of Liseux had to be dragged kicking & screaming to write her autobiography. Yet Chesterton had great reverence for even the most mediocre artist because they were engaging in an activity that reflects our dignity in being created in the image and likeness of God. You'll never find a dog arranging the food in his food bowl in an aesthetically-pleasing manner...
John Updike on writers:
"From the admission that a good writer might be a scoundrel it is but a short step to the speculation that a writer is necessarily something of a scoundrel. A raffish and bitter scent clings to the inky profession. Seeing truly and giving the human news frankly are both discourtesies, at least to those in the immediate vicinity. The writer's value to mankind irresistibly manifests itself at some remove of space and, often, time."
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