why blog

A good friend of mine asked me why I have a blog, and I answered, "blogging is all the rage right now." "But why do you have one", she asked. I thought for a I minute, and the first thing I thought of is …external validation. Having been a performing musician off and on for the past 30 years, I know all about external validation. But more about that later.

Back to the primary existential question…If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? If we are sitting alone in our room, do we exist? If we write in our journals, is it for us alone or for that amorphous witness out there?

My girlfriend is a pagan blogger, and she is part of a world-wide network of pagan bloggers. Communities are formed and kept alive through blogging. Is it about mirroring ourselves through other people's stories?

I just left a band that I have been in for over a year. There were a lot of reasons why, but primarily I just realized that I would rather be doing other things on Sunday and Monday nites. I used to get so mad at a friend of mine who thought that everything boiled down to "do the positives out-weigh the negatives"? How simplistic can you be?

But over the years, I have come to realize that it just may sometimes be true. I have stayed in bands I really wanted to leave because I needed the external validation. I guess I really have grown up, because having Sunday dinner with my girlfriend, her son, and any number of wild and wonderful friends is really more fulfilling. There will be more bands in my future, but a son is only 15 once.