What is this whole blog thing for anyway?

I am starting this because I said I would.  My friend Tim persuaded me, and that was probably a far more difficult and complicated maneuver on his part, that I should start this blog, and I made a commitment that I would, so here I am.  Which gives a reason for why this blog exists, but not really much of a purpose for that to lend meaning to that existence, which makes it like a lot of us, I suppose. 

Of course, there are two purposes to this exercise, though there might only be one at a time, as they are largely about perspective, I think.  For instance, right now, a large part of the purpose, for me, is to have the commitment of adding to this blog consistently, as a matter of building the habit of working more steadily.  I have built that habit before, but it has always been intermittent, largely driven by situational demands.  In college, many years ago, I wrote daily, because I had an audience and because I was in classes that I felt committed to writing for.  While writing the first draft of my novel I also was able to commit to daily writing, and when I am in the midst of a project, writing a story, for example, I take my commitment to the story seriously, and see that as requiring a daily effort on the page.

In that sense, and for me, this blog does have a definite and practical purpose, but it must have a purpose, as well, for anyone who is reading it.  I don't want to sit here and talk about my day, though that may be a perfectly valid use of a blog for many, and I do not deny it as a valuable choice, but I want to be true to my own usage of language, and so it seems to me that I am going to need to discover what I do want to write here.  I mean, maybe it will wind up being mostly reviews, or short essays, or whatever.  Maybe I will come around and start actually writing personal encounters.

I think, though, what is important right at this moment is the acknowledgement that I can accept the very need to do this daily as its purpose, for me, right now.  That sounds like a simple thing, but I have been considering how hard it is for me to really take obligations seriously if they are only to myself.  Perhaps relaxing and accepting that I am doing this just to have that commitment that I need, so that I can insure that I am nurturing that daily practice, is important.  It may be that merely by accepting the validity of having this blog's primary purpose be for myself, I am making a significant step.  It may also be that this is not important.  It is probably more a question of how I treat the task than anything, and whether I allow it to infect me with a desire to do more serious writing.