allanhunter.net Blog

Since I teach memoir and writing and literature people often ask me about blogging as a way forward with their writing.  I can’t answer for everyone, since we’re all different, but I’d have to say that blogging is a way of checking in with oneself and finding out if one has anything useful to say.  Usually I think I have (or I wouldn’t do it).

Of course, blogs tend to come in many shapes and forms - short is good, and some bloggers reveal all sorts of aspects of their lives that seem self-indulgent, at least to me.  No one really cares what your child’s bowel movements might be (which was a theme on a couple of blogs I ran across) unless one has a sick child - whereupon I would go to a medical professional by preference.

The point is not to produce more words, but to see if one can produce thoughts and ideas that are an authentic reflection of one’s own inner voice, and that might, in that way, lead to wisdom.

Personally I don’t blog ’short’. It takes me time and space to express myself the way I feel I need to. Oscar Wilde may have had brilliant one-liners, but I am not made that way.

That said, turning up daily at the keyboard is a wonderful way to make sure one stays in touch with one’s inner self, which seems to want to flow the moment I click onto the appropriate page.  Sometimes we write to discover what it is we feel.  Without that we might not know.

But I do more than this.  Just about each month I have columns in such on-line and print journals as Wisdom Magazine and PlanetLightWorker. Check them out if you have a chance.  There I’ll put about 1500 words at a time into a piece that I hope will convey useful thoughts and insights to others in the wider world. Each time I do so I feel I’m doing just a little bit to help move our world towards more compassion and understanding. I don’t pretend to have all the answers.  I just think I can be a useful part of the on-going dialogue. Now that seems like a good idea to me.

I also read a few blogs (since time can easily be frittered away if one reads many) and I’ve lately been reading one by Jenni Ballantyne, thecomfyplace.com, as Jenni, who writes beautifully, deals with the final stages of cancer.  If you want to read her words don’t delay.  She may not be able to wite for much longer. If you want to witness grace under pressure, you really should read her words.  Real courage is not so plentiful that we can afford to ignore it.