Learning to Blog

To quote Pink Floyd, "A soul intention, that's learning to fly/Condition grounded but determined to try/Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies/Tongue-tied and twisted just an earthbound misfit, I ..."

Now, despite ruining the rhyme, just change the word "fly" to "blog." That pretty much seems to sum up my current sentiment about my attempt at blogging on this website. I'm learning to do it, trying to do it, getting tongue-tied and twisted at times, particularly as I start circling through the blogosphere ...

What that in mind, I decided to change the title of my previous post from "F--- Horse Racing" to "My Problem with Horse Racing." Initially, I wanted the strong statement in the title because I felt incredibly empassioned about the topic (and I still do). However, after seeing all kinds of discussion on message boards on websites like espn.com and sportsline.com, in which various sides of the issue just insult one another and dismiss one another outrightly, I decided that as much as I liked how that title conveyed my sense of indignation, I didn't like the kind of dismissive and exclusionary sentiment that I felt that title ultimately might convey. I do have a problem with horse racing, but I don't want to stop listening to those who might disagree or who might agree that there is a problem to be addressed, but who don't want to throw away the whole practice of horse racing, which "F-- Horse Racing" would seem to suggest doing. Otherwise, I'm setting myself up to have to take it when people who adamantly disagree with me tell me to go "f--- off" and I feel like I'm contributing to the very kinds of dialogue that were so frustrating me on the aforementioned discussion boards. So, I've changed it, with the feeling that my last few sentences in the post do a pretty good job of conveying my indignation without the need for such a potentially dismissive title.

My change of that title seems like it's reflective of the process of learning to blog. I started this blog back in February after reading the blogs of a couple of people whose opinions I think quite highly of (see the links to The Agon and Mistercellaneous on the right side of this page for these blogs). It seemed like a potentially interesting, entertaining, and rewarding thing to do and so, I began, as I stated in my very first post, "not sure where it will go and where it will take me." And, despite the fact that I try to construct my main posts carefully, nearly three months later, I think I'm experiencing one of my early major lessons along the way: i.e., the need for a greater recognition of the kinds of discourses that my posts may or may not promote and greater recognition of how that aligns or fails to align with my own desires for and sentiments regarding discussion. Like communication itself, blogging (which is a form of communication) is a process ... and, as such, just as I'd argue that studying communication involves a continuing, lifelong process of examining and re-examining one's own understanding of communication, I'd argue that the process of blogging takes a continuing commitment to reflecting upon one's own blogging practices and an ongoing willingness to learn from and change one's blogging practices. I hope that I can effectively maintain those commitments as I continue the process of learning to blog.