Ain’t We Just: Reflections On Making The Effort

/ Ally Bean

“Well, my time of not taking you seriously is coming to a middle.”

~ Mal to Jayne, Firefly

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I said that I wanted a challenge, didn’t I?  And I got it with June 2014 NaBloPoMo.  I’m halfway through it now.

I’d forgotten how much effort it takes to write on an almost daily basis about subjects gleaned from the details of my life.  I used to do this all the time, you know?  And it was easy.

But back then I was a more optimistic person than I am today.  And back then more people showed up here on a regular basis to chit-chat.  Facebook + Twitter hadn’t turned readers away from us bloggers yet, so if you wanted to connect on social media blogging was the only way to do it.

And it was darned fun.

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However, this is now and I still choose to keep a blog for my own reasons.  On a personal level it keeps my brain clicking and my heart open.

On a more idealistic level I figure that it’ll provide historians hundreds of years from now with written documentation about daily life in the early 2000s, which is really cool if you think about it.

And on a more don’t-take-yourself-too-seriously level I can’t help but think that like Mal and Zoe from Firefly in the following clip, we bloggers who show up on a regular basis are– well, you’ll see…

Mal: “Well, look at this.  It appears that we got here just in the nick of time.  What does that make us?”

Zoe: “Big damn heroes, sir.”

Mal: “Ain’t we just.”

16 thoughts on “Ain’t We Just: Reflections On Making The Effort”

  1. I’ve always loved the way you put life’s situations into words that are so much fun to read. I think your next project should be a book! Keep writing Ally Bean!

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    • Beth, well thank you. Life’s situations just seem to present themselves to me, so why not write about them? You could do the same thing, you know. You write. I know that you do. 🙂

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    • Well, my goodness, I’m blushing here. Thanks Zazzy. There are days when I wonder if my “special talent” is merely showing up here. If you write enough things, people will take notice. Or at least that’s my current working theory. 🙂

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      • No, your talent isn’t just showing up. Writing, even daily, doesn’t bring people. It’s what and how you write. Remember February when I wrote every day, tried to keep posts short and interesting – people ran away in droves. You need an interesting point of view, which you have, and a talent for writing that keeps it interesting.

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        • Zazzy, that’s an interesting take on what I do here. Thank you.

          I started blogging to see if I could create and write a blog. Then I’ve kept on with blogging over the years [more or less consistently] because I like using this medium to talk with people.

          All of which is why I find it difficult to even contemplate writing a book. That’s a solitary activity which has about a snowball’s chance in hell of getting published.

          With a blog I get immediate interaction and can publish on my own terms, which keeps me engaged in the writing process. Sitting down by myself writing a book? Not so much happy, I suspect.

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    • Andra, I suspect that the dedication needed to keep a daily blog is a form of madness. In fact, the longer this month drags on, the more sure of it I am. Oy vey.

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  4. I write mostly for myself, but I do love comments and interaction. There have been times I’ve thought about giving up on blogging, but then I go back and read some of my more heartfelt posts and get weepy/happy about what I’ve expressed. It’s very therapeutic for me.

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    • Margaret, yes, you have a whole different approach to blogging than I do. I love it, btw.

      I’m more in blogging for the conversation, but even when that doesn’t happen I keep on with blogging because I think that it’s wise to pay attention to your life, make sense of it and then write it down.

      Blog for yourself, for others, for history. There’s no right or wrong here, just various ways of doing it. Which is one of the reasons why blogging is so cool.

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  5. We poor bloggers. Wasn’t it–sniff–nice–when we had more readers? And then they started to–sniff–dry up and we wept into our cups for a year or two and then we finally had to make peace with it. Some days I’m OK. ha ha. Great post. Speaks to many of us, I’m sure.

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    • Kathy, you said it so well. It was great fun when every day was a whole new conversation, but now the readers come & go without any discernible reasons. I don’t take it personally, but sometimes it does make me wistful for blogging days gone by. *sniff, sniff*

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  6. Oh, the Glory Days. I missed ’em. Like most Trends, I waited and waited, watched and hesitated just long enough until the heydays peaked and passed. Then I jumped in and … oh, well. I don’t have the longing and wistfulness that a lot of people do, but I have definitely noticed a drop in readership. It’s PinTwitFace. And a general decline in people’s ability to read anything longer than 140 characters.

    Keep posting often. Who cares if you can’t stick to a regular schedule or if you don’t have a “niche”? It’s You Doing You. For You. The idea that some people like to walk along every now and then is pleasant. Don’t you think?

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    • nance, again you make sense with your PinTwitFace explanation. It’s perfect.

      As the blogosphere has changed, I believe that I’ve adapted right along with it. I enjoy myself more now when I post because I keep it fresh and write what I want. [Yay eclectic.] Niches were never my thing.

      But as for having a set schedule, I need one. Not a strict formal one with posts planned out weeks in advance like I did at one time. No, I need to commit to being here a few times per week. Without doing so, I’d just keep revising what I wrote and never hit the publish button!

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