Like many creative ventures in life, I'm finding that blogging is like a journey; or to put it another way, a dynamic process of development and change. You never really "arrive" anywhere, so much as you spend time and energy taking in the ever-changing landscape of life. Indeed, I've found the mere act of putting thoughts into written words meaningfully changes those thoughts, sometimes in new and interesting ways. Cicero noted something similar in the 150th paragraph of the first volume of De Oratore, where he exhorts us:
"...to write as much as possible. [For] the pen is the best and most eminent author and teacher of eloquence."
Within the context of the text, Cicero suggests that good orators achieve eloquence not by speaking, but rather by writing (a contradiction of the specificity of training principle, but I digress). In short, there seems to be something about the act of converting thoughts into written words that benefits the expression of ideas. I don't know what this "something" is, but the experience of blogging leads me to believe that something unusual is indeed taking place.
Perhaps blogging feels like a journey then because one needn't have an end in mind. It's a bit like that oft-quoted line from the 27th chapter of the Tao-Te-Ching:
"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving."
There's certainly joy in posting a quality finished product, but there's also a kind of joy in the act of digesting experience in a new and interesting way.
Where does it all lead? Presumably, anywhere and everywhere your mind and experience take you. Taking a little time to write about your own experience may offer some novel ways of understanding it. Maybe. Something to ponder, maybe.
Happy Saturday, friends :)
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