I felt sad for the gentleman who wrote "Final Post". It is not very often you read a post that has been prepared as to be read conditionally at the time of the author's death and it gave me an interpretation not felt before.
Why do we blog, why bother? Andy said "Blogging put me in touch with an inordinate number of smart people, an exhilarating if humbling experience". I agree with him. We blog (that is most of us) to discuss, to exchange ideas, and to come away with a more informed understanding of the things we blog about…sometimes even when we don't expect it. Andy realized that the way he thought about things sometimes was inferior, that he was misinformed, or lacked the appropriate mind to understand why, "When I was young, I was smart, but the older I got, the more I realized just how dumb I was in comparison to truly smart people." And that's not unusual, that is how we grow. Through a system of interaction, being wrong, and making mistakes are we given the opportunity to better ourselves. But only the opportunity is given, not the fruits of success that comes with exercising it, you have to commit to the opportunity to receive that, Andy said "But, to my credit, I think, I was at least smart enough to pay attention to the people with real brains and even occasionally learn something from them. It has been joy and a pleasure having the opportunity to do this." The yearn for intellectual exchange is what Andy sought every time he put his "thoughts on (virtual) paper", it is what I seek every time I bring my idea's to my keyboard, blogging is the means by which we attempt to achieve these things. This is why we blog.
1 comment:
You are right about how we grow intellectually--that is, by dialogue with those who can provoke our thinking to new levels. We can do this through reading books, but it's even better when such people join us in actual conversation, sharing not just their thoughts, but their time. Andrew was too modest about his own intellect. He was able to engage these smart bloggers not just because he was a soldier in a war zone, which made him person with interesting topics, but because of his genuine enthusiasm for ideas, which made him an interesting person.
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