I have never understood the purpose of most blogs. I can see that it’s a fun hobby and a way to send friends an update, much like the letter sent with an Xmas card. A lot of people use it as a way to tell the world about their business. But some people treat it as much more than that.
Queuing
As kids, we learn all the rules that get us a good mark in “Plays well with others”. One of them is how to form a queue or line and act like good little kids that do not frazzle our saintly elementary school teachers more than necessary.
This carries over into being a supposed adult. When I went to pick up my son at summer camp recently, they had an elaborate procedure in place to guarantee the kids’ safety. Everyone had to present a form of ID to pick up their child, and it was compared to a list of valid parents and caretakers. This operation took a lot of time, and so everyone automatically formed a line.
“Make No Small Plans”
“Make no small plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood”
When Daniel Burnham said this, he was an architect who was at the top of an architect’s world. He was in the process of designing the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a neoclassical playground highlighting all the great gifts of the mechanical age and the rebirth of the city ravaged by fire 22 years earlier. It was the right time and place to think big. The bosses of Chicago loved it, and the people were enthralled.
Telling Stories
Many people write to tell their stories. A successful writer has to learn how to tell everyone else’s story. This isn’t selling out, it is connecting yourself to the world so that your writing becomes bigger than yourself.
Community
I’d like to include a pointer to a recent article I posted on the essential elements of community:
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=30576
Why is such a thing needed? Everyone has a different definition of “community”. Most of these definitions are not all that useful when it comes to evaluating whether or not a project enhances community or not.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 