Why?

Last week my therapist said  "You've been reading a lot of blogs.  Let's talk about why.  What do you get out of them?"

Fifteen minutes later I stopped talking, pretty much without having paused, and said "What was the question?"  He grinned and said "Well, you answered it."

What I'd been talking about was how it felt to have connected with a world of people who share and understand my passion - for whom the passion for fiber and creation isn't an oddity, who understand that a hobby isn't just a way to pass time but can be a call of the spirit.  And who are also pretty much a good bunch of folk.  All communities inevitably have grouches and jerks, but so far, with knitting and knit blogging, the unusually smart, articulate, passionate, funny, interesting, engaged and thoughtful people far outnumber the bores and the boors.

I'm odd, so it is possible I just attract and am attracted to the like-mindedly odd, but I don't run into that many of the like-mindedly odd in the real world.

I find so much out there that is interesting in blog-land (which, by the way, needs another name, because that's just an ugly word),  not just in the knit blog world - windows into people's suffering and joy, passion and pissiness, and constantly find myself stumbling onto the articulation of an idea that has been floating around in me only half understood.

People outraged, people falling love, people enjoying, venting, mastering skills, remodeling kitchens, reading, learning, changing, marriages beginning and ending, children being born or, so tragically, lost.  People discovering their lives, and themselves, risking themselves by exposing something to a stranger and gaining something in the process - knowledge, perspective, agreement, discussion, a greater sense of self.

It fills a void I am not sure I even knew was there, something akin to the community of a college campus, or the lost neigborhoods of communities that've been eaten up by town-center-less development. Akin, but not the same.

It is brilliant.  A gift.  I'm grateful.

Thank you.

Comments

[Sharon]

Excellent post, Juno. Ditto ditto ditto.

[Deb]

Very well put! I think the world of blogs fills a very distinct need and creates a very distinct community--one which couldn't exist geographically outside a 1970s commune. How else could so many people connect with so many other people with the same interests? Before discovering all these knitting blogs, I had no idea there were so many other people equally (if not more) obsessed with this whole yarn thing as I am. It adds to my mental health, rather than detracting from it.

[Cara]

My therapist is so sick of me talking about blogs! I think he's pissed I'm smiling so much these days. ;-)

I haven't been blogging much this week and MAN have I missed it!

[Dianna]

Instead of blog-o-sphere or blog-land, how about calling it "the internets"? ;) ha,ha,ha

[Kay]

I think we need a Cafe Press t-shirt that says, 'Like-mindedly odd', don't you?

Even the yarn store people think I'm odd. They're like, it's, um, yarn? We, um, sell it? Um, calm down?

xox Kay

[Lana]

Very insightful. One of the perks of the information age is that "global" becomes "the 'hood" that we need to grow and thrive in. I too have been nourished be like-minded individuals who in "ordinary" life would never have had the privilege to meet.

[Margaret]

Thank you Juno for your wonderful blog. Interestingly, many knitting blogs cover so much more of life than "just" knitting.

But, Oh the knitting and the knitters! I have been motivated to try new techniques and been intrigued by new ideas about style and color through what I have seen and read. I have learned about technique from knitting disasters and recovery as much as from the triumphs. While unable to knit for a while, I celebrated many vicarious FO's. I have enjoyed a whole world of knitting, especially the things I'm not interested in making myself, whose beauty I otherwise would not have known about. Lastly, I have laughed out loud many times and felt privileged to be allowed to share and benefit from the insights of some amazing women.

[Norma]

I love that. Any bets as to whether your therapist, who was probably heretofore unaware just what a "bloggerhood" can give, starts to look into it a little bit more? I bet he was thinking, "Oh, that's an odd little, slightly dangerous, antisocial.... blah blah blah thing" -- you know, all the things they say about kids who are too much into chat rooms. I'm sure there is a lot of that out there, that side of the online world that is really not healthy, but over time, I have been really developing a strong impression that knitblogging is a completely different animal than other forms of blogging. We seem to be much more interactive and supportive of each other, and many more of us actually meet in real life -- than the other segments of blogging that I've seen.

[ann]

if I wasn't on my laptop, I'd give you a standing ovation!

[Annie]

It's funny, because I was just thinking last night how the "blog world" has changed me. You are so right when you say it fills a void~ a void I didn't know was there. Great post.

[Cassie]

I think one of the wonderful things about being here is that we can choose whom we associate with. Seperate the chaff from the wheat and surround ourselves with things that please us. Unlike real life where we rarely get that much control.

[maggi]

Thanks back atcha, Juno. Yours is one of my faves for so many of the reasons to which you allude. And how is your hand today?

[amy!]

I usually call it the "blog-o-sphere". But I think the trouble with the name really stems from the word "blog". It's just not that smooth.

[Wendy]

I love this post...thank you!

[Cursingmama]

Very wonderfully put. Thank You.

[caroline]

Beautifully put. You're definitely part of the 'tribe' that keeps me sane...

[Margene]

Very well said. This is a wonderland of people, ideas and associations that have helped us all in so many ways.

[Elena]

"...constantly find myself stumbling onto the articulation of an idea that has been floating around in me only half understood."

Juno, this has happened to me more than once when reading your blog. Thank you.

[Vicki]

Hit nail on head. Perfect! (I hate the name "blogland," too.)