"Web-cams out of words": Four years ago today . . .

Would that my blog were as cool as this graphic. Image found here.

On February 27, 2004, in its earlier incarnation on LiveJournal, I unleashed this on an unsuspecting blogosphere:

This is the maiden entry for Blog Meridian. I have no idea where this thing will go. I'm starting this (seriously) in part because I'm taking a break from folding laundry, in part because Beethoven's 9th Symphony is playing [this version, in case you're curious] and something about the 4th movement (the "Ode to Joy" movement) says, "Now. BLOG!" Well, okay.

[snip]

I have not read many blogs, but most of the ones I have read either are filled with entries like, Well, I farted around AGAIN today, and we readers are supposed to celebrate that person's conquering of a new day, or they are filled with way too much angst-ridden navel-gazing that assumes that total strangers out there in cyber-land are gonna relate to those who say, There's nothing new left to feel. Hard to connect with that sentiment, too. In the case of both examples above, I wonder what motivates the blogger to blog. But then again, the same question can be extended to each of us. I suppose it's the strange combination of private diary and open book that the blog presents us with. So: we're cyber-exhibitionists building web-cams out of words. The words reveal spaces, actual or imagined (and always filtered by the conscience that produces them)--and then there are the spaces between, the things not said. Two different dimensions, touching on each other, but each its own space. But there's also a kind of intimacy this medium creates, too, that perhaps many of you have found seductive in various ways (if not, then what ARE you doing here?).

And here I am, four years later. Believe me when I say that I've had more than one occasion to wonder what I'm doing here. There were a couple of times when I gave serious thought to quitting this blogging thing . . . but then something would come along that, for better or for worse, would revive the spark. As of tonight, that spark is burning as brightly as it ever has.

What shines even more brightly about good old Blog Meridian is the fact that early on it somehow attracted readers much smarter (and more loyal) than it deserved--and, even more extraordinary to me, they still visit. Fearful Syzygy and Raminagrobis have visited and commented since the LiveJournal days; once I moved over to Blogger, more of you found your way here, or I to your blogs, via the old link-exchanges I used to participate in. And your blogs led me to those of still others . . . The only point is that, even given the writer's desire to blog, readers and commenters help sustain that desire. It takes a blogosphere to nurture a blog, and this particular blog has benefited immensely from some excellent nurturers.

Anyway. We made it to four. Thanks. I think I'll keep it going for a while longer.