I guess I need to redefine why I blog… but I think in the end writing has to be for us before it’s going to make sense to anyone else.

I keep searching out what my niche would be. I have asked my readers to help with their feedback, but his pandering for comments NEVER works. So alas, I just keep writing as your friend San said above.

At some point, because I just keep writing, it allows me to be surprised that ANYONE is reading at all. Otherwise, I’d be stressing for more footprints in my stats. Ya know?

Two weeks ago a grad student at Sac State asked if she could interview me about blogging for a paper she was writing. I said sure, met her at Starbucks, and answered questions about how blogging has affected my life for an entire hour. It was fascinating. She asked questions I had never even thought about, and even though I was put on the spot, the answers flowed out of me seamlessly. I left that interview feeling more confident about blogging than I ever had.

For me, my reasons for blogging have changed and evolved over the years, as I would imagine yours have too. It started as a creative outlet, a place to just write for me, and then grew into a place where an audience formed. That audience became two things for me: instant accountability to write often and write well, and a place of community. I think those things exist in both blog-land and writer-land, but in different ways. The community is irreplaceable, and when asked point blank in the interview, “Why do you blog?” …..that is what I said. I blog for the me too’s. Although a lot of my blog community exists within the blog itself, in the form of comments, a big part of that community exists outside of it. Like the phone conversations with total strangers about breech babies and c-sections, or like the e-mail I received today from someone who, after hearing about Gene’s passing, decided to write his son a letter, just in case anything happens to him in the near future. I don’t write about my personal life for the sake of just writing, or for the teeny tiny amount of money I am now making….I write for the community. For the me too’s.

And that’s why I love your blog, Les. Because I am one of your me too’s. Not with the cancer stuff, but with the marriage stuff and the mommy stuff and the friendship stuff. I love reading your perspective on things, and I love that you frequently challenge me to think hard.

Your blog, and your future book, are going to continue to be a great inspiration for both men and women. I know there are a LOT of spouses of cancer survivors and patients who are going to read your words, whisper “me too”, and sleep better at night knowing they’re not the only one who has felt what you felt, and continue to feel.

Okay, that wasn’t very condensed. I still have a lot more to say about this, but I’ve worked up an appetite and need to go make a sandwich. Maybe we can talk about it offline sometime

Love you, friend.

As for that mission statement, those are all excellent reasons for you to keep writing and me to keep reading. Excelsior, kiddo.

Tim