The Change I Wish to See in the World

I have been meaning to blog a lot more than I have actually been blogging lately. This is kind of always true, but less true in some ways. I have definitely had periods of less blogging activity than now, and I also have two posts started on two different topics, but I can't seem to finish, and in general I am feeling stalled. I am still dealing with the usual lack of time, but there are two other issues.

One was simply a matter of timing. I wanted to write about the move away from intellectual honesty--actually, any kind of honesty--in contemporary politics, but the news of Andrew Breitbart's death broke that same day, and posting that would have felt like I was dancing on his grave. If Shirley Sherrod can be classy about it, so can I. (That's another problem with procrastination really. I could have covered that months ago.)

Another issue has been a feeling of pointlessness, amplified by a recent blog post by Paul Krugman:

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/this-tribal-nation/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto

In a nutshell, facts and logic do not penetrate ideology. This is especially true on the conservative side, but that's usually the one that I'm pecking at. Okay, my post on the occupy movement would be more anti-liberal (though it isn't, really), but generally a lot of what I want to write about is stuff that would not be believed by those who need to believe it, even if they were going to read it, which cannot realistically be expected. So why do I even bother ever writing about anything but shopping or weight loss or cute things my dogs do?

Well, because I can't give it up. I do care about music and television and movies and boys and cooking, but I also care about politics and education and psychology and environmental issues. And I'm glad I care. I should care. There's not just a great big world out there--there's an enormous universe! And it's interesting and important. There are no excuses for boredom or apathy.

I have still been debating about whether I should do anything differently, and I don’t really know, but here are a few thoughts that have been floating around.

1. I’ve seen this quote written different ways, but I will go with the one I like best, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Ghandi

I want people to be able to speak courteously and open their hearts and minds to good things. I am still ardently pro-thought. So, I should keep learning and thinking and pondering. Does that mean I need to write it though?

2. “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.” Albert Einstein

Possibly I do need to write it, just to know that I actually am making sense. Writing is still how I work out the buzzing thoughts crowding my head.

A friend was considering starting a new blog, but was wondering if people would read it, and I said it doesn’t necessarily matter. I get an average of six hits per post. That is not a lot (though I appreciate them all, and I love comments), but even if no one ever read it, I still get benefits from the mental process of organizing my thoughts and finding the proper words, and from opening myself up enough to put my words out there for the world.

3. Every now and then I get comments from people who agreed with me already (See?), but found my phrasing helpful. Maybe that’s the sort of thing that can eventually matter for point number one.

And again, I can’t give it up. I may never make a cent from screenwriting, but I can’t just stop it either. I must write.

So, the next two posts (I think), will be some really hard and controversial topics, and then they will be followed by other hard things, and then by some fairly trivial things, and then probably more deep stuff. But I need to quit procrastinating because then there is all this ground that I have partially written in my head, and I could have referred back to it if I had gotten it out of my head earlier.

I’m afraid that just from a time perspective I am going to have to give up Hatchlings.