The problem with a liberal arts education..

is that I can't write a blog to save my life. Not that I can't write one, really, but I have a hard time writing regularly because I keep wanting to fall into the pattern of writing that I've practiced basically my entire life and really perfected in college: lengthy, detailed analysis. Seriously, over 4 years of time at Pomona I really practiced and refined the art of reading, thinking and then creating.. Creating multiple page critical analyses of what I had read. Multiple page ramblings about my opinions on a discussion we'd had in class. Multiple page notes, even.

But blogging, blogging's not suited for this mentality. Blogging thrives with vitality, a buzzword used to discuss the frequency of interaction among a community. Or freshness. I heart that word, when applied to blogging and the Internet in general. Freshness?? Really? Do words become stale? Do they wilt? A black and white leaf of lettuce on the page that loses color and taste and eventually dies? Well, I suppose that yes, in a way, they can. But great writing, great opinions, great thoughts, do those ever die? I pick up a book written a hundred years ago by a guy who didn't have a computer and you know what? His writing still impacts me, makes me think differently about the world and my own decision structure. So how important is this freshness thing? Should I be posting just to stay fresh, just to comment a tiny bit about something that's happening today in the off chance that I'll get a little search love or that someone will think I'm a shade smarter b/c I got to the issue before they'd read 30 other blogs that pointed to the same topic and made a few pithy remarks?

I love blogging, I love the voice that it gives people. I love that it makes the news open source and perhaps more than anything, I love that it gives anyone the ability to be influential. But seriously folks, let's get a hold of ourselves here. You don't need to post every day in order to be relevant. You don't need to be posting 8 times a day to be Scoble. I'm all for those people who post prolifically, but at the same time, I'm going to take a bit of a different approach I think; I'm going to write when I'm ready to write. I'm going to make a conscious effort, to be sure, to post more often when I have stuff to say. But I don't want to force it. If I have no opinion yet, if I haven't worked out the kinks in my logic, well, maybe I won't say anything at all. Or maybe I'll just post about the process. I don't really know. But you know what? I liked my liberal arts education and I'm damn glad that it means that sometimes I just shut up and think..