Proving Sam Johnson Wrong

I've been thinking of blogging for several years but have only just now begun (this is my first post).  Two questions seem pertinent:  One, why blog at all?  Two, why now?

As to the first, as a teacher of writing at the college level, I spend a lot of time telling my students that the only way to become a better writer is to write!  A colleague of mine, who also teaches writing, shared that after awhile she began to feel hypocritical telling students this when she realized that she herself was doing very little writing--at least outside the routine memos, reports, etc. that come along with the job. Her comment resonated with me.  Having been raised to believe, as Garrison Keillor says, that "guilt is the gift that keeps on giving," guilt has always been a strong motivator for me.

I've thought some lately about times in the past when I have been writing regularly and realized that my writing was usually motivated by some kind of project: an article, a book, a report for a committee I was serving on, etc.  For several years when I lived in Oklahoma I wrote a weekly article for the church bulletin.  While I don't remember this writing project as being entirely satisfying (there were plenty of weeks when I struggled to find something to write about and the time to write it), I do remember the satisfaction of the writing discipline.  There was something very good about having to turn in an article by a specific deadline every week.  I was often deeply satisfied (whether anyone else was is doubtful) with what I had written and was often amazed that simply having something to write each week made me much more observant and thoughtful about my experiences and reading.  So I suppose in some ways I hope this blog does the same thing as that bulletin article did.

It's also occurred to me as I've thought about this blog that blogging is a pure form of writing.  It is published writing only in the loosest sense.  I doubt that many bloggers (unless they are already well-known writers) expect that many people will actually bother to read their blog.  In that sense, blogging is a very personal form of expression.  The great 18th-century man of letters, Samuel Johnson, once observed that "Only a blockhead ever wrote for anything but money."  While it's a great quote and vintage Johnson, I see my choice to blog as a way to prove Samuel Johnson wrong.  As a teacher of writing, I take it as an article of faith that writing is good in and of itself--whether anyone else pays to read it or not.

As for the second question (Why now?), I believe I have something to say.  I've spent the last 25 or so years of my life reading great books and talking about them to college students (in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and, for the last 16, in Oregon).  I'm thinking that all that reading and talking gives me a storehouse to draw from, and I'm hoping that one of the main features of my blog will be commentary on good writing.  I hope I'll be able to introduce the few who may follow my ramblings to some good literature and perhaps give them some insights into it.  Of course, as a blogger, I'll also reserve the right to talk about life and events outside of literature that happen to strike me at the time.

I've noticed that people often begin blogging when they embark on a new adventure.  For example, my oldest son and two of his close friends have just moved to North Carolina to work for a new zip line company for the summer.  In the last week, all three of them have started blogs.  While I have not made such a dramatic move geographically, I have begun a new adventure recently.  The small college where I taught for 15 years closed its doors last spring.  It was a traumatic experience for the students and faculty and staff to say goodbye to what had been a small, close knit family.  Though we hailed from Kansas and Oklahoma, my wife and I, and our 3 kids, had fallen in love with the Pacific Northwest.  We hoped and prayed that a teaching opportunity would open up for me near Portland, and, miraculously (given the economy and the scarcity of full-time, tenure track jobs in academia) one was available at George Fox University, some 45 miles from my previous college.  At Fox, I 've not only found a university whose academic and spiritual values I can enthusiastically support but I've found supportive colleagues in the English, Communication, and Bible departments who have already in the year I've been there encouraged me to become a better teacher and a more productive writer and scholar.  So my decision to blog is in no small way thanks to the influence of these colleagues and to the rejuvenation I feel in suddenly being on this new and unexpected adventure. 

If all these reasons sound rather self-serving, maybe they are.  However, some of the things I've enjoyed reading the most over the years have been autobiographies and creative nonfiction by literate people who are simply trying to make sense of the craziness of their own lives and experiences.  In that spirit, you're welcome to listen in on my musings as I make my small scale attempt to do what one of my favorite authors, Wendell Berry, does so well:  standing by words.