Etchings in the Sand…

If one takes weblogs seriously, he/she loves to read the works of others on a broad basis. This is needed to stay sharp, expand horizons, understand unwritten standards and feed hunger for good writing. Blogs are a gas. Yes they are. They are also addictive.

I regularly discover, read and prune my collection of daily readings. Have too. I want to read only the ones that satisfy admittedly personal standards of being worthy. It is a problem keeping the collection down to readable limits. There is awfully good and interesting writing going on out there.

My favorites are the really good photoblogs. They give so much and usually point beyond what they suggest on the surface. My photoblog gets 5 times the number of “hits” as this one does every day. I don’t understand this. Maybe a good image is truly more interesting than a thousand words, to paraphrase an old chestnut.

But there are strange dynamics at work in written blogs. The most mystifying to me is the relevance of their length. Some are a few sentences long. Others are extremely long. Either can contain outstanding stuff that I can’t afford to miss. I lean toward and try to write shorter pieces, but would not miss a few of the great longer ones for anything.

But for every longer blog on my daily reading list, I have to cull about 3 good short ones. This is a never ending process for the serious blogger. Editing the list. Keeping it fresh and of high quality. Trusting some inner instinct and hunger. Being vitally part of the community. Staying alive.

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