The Art of Blogging?

As a writer I am well aware of the horrors of the blank page or screen. As someone who enjoys confronting and overcoming the difficulty such a horror creates, I have long been fascinated by the art of blogging. After all, it seems to me that a blogger takes every day as an opportunity to sit in front of a blank screen with the aim of putting down something that others will find interesting.
So, if all this is true, then why have I only now turned myself into a blogger?

Well, the truth is, I have always fell in with those of the opinion that it “takes a certain mentality to blog”. What you have to understand, of course, is that those who make this statement are being snootily derogatory. It is their opinion, as it was my opinion, that anyone who sits in front of a screen on a regular basis and writes a blog about their daily experiences and opinions on anything and everything has to be, in some way, mentally deficient. This view-point assumes that such a mental deficiency involves some kind of deep seated arrogance. The way that a blogger assumes others will be interested in their every thought can only be hugely arrogant, and probably a little vain too.
So, why have I changed camps, as it were, and am now attempting to become one of the legion of regular bloggers?
Firstly, as a writer I have no real defence against this argument at face value; I spend time every day writing down my thoughts anyway. It may be that my thoughts are invested into the stories that I create, but they are still there; it is still my assumption, on some level, that others will be interested in those thoughts.
Also, I have spent a great deal of time talking to my friends who do blog; friends that I see are in no way overly arrogant or vain.
What I have come to realise is that people who, with a condescending curl of their lips, make the statement that “it takes a person of a certain mentality to blog” are only showing their own arrogance and disdain for the rest of humanity.
It could be that I have been blind and now I see. What I have realised is that the world web, with its community of bloggers and “social networkers” offers a glimmer of hope for the future of mankind. After all, it is our co-operative and social nature, our desire to share thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams with one another, that will lead to peace on earth.
Perhaps that seems a little melodramatic and it may be hopelessly naïve, but I have come to believe in the dream that the spirit of the web is meant to uphold; that by bringing us all together we will learn to understand and empathise with one another and, some day, love and peace will eradicate hate and war.
So, here I am; a naïve and artistic soul attempting to connect with the whole of the world. Let the art of blogging begin.

MJB