Why I Blog

Written Wednesday, 19 May 2021

If you’re reading this now, we are kindred spirits, and I thank you.

Recently I had a loved one tell me in a text message, “I don’t read.” This was in response to a suggestion that they read my blog to get caught up on what’s going on with me. I hadn’t spoken to this particular loved one in quite some time, and I knew it would take a marathon chat session or a lengthy telephone conversation to get them up to speed. That’s why I also asked for a good time to call once they’d had a chance to read my blog. You see, at the same time that I received the text message, an old friend arrived at my father’s house to visit with me. There are few things ruder, in my opinion, than being focused on your cell phone carrying on a lengthy text conversation while a friend sits across from you in the flesh. Unfortunately, my loved one’s adamant response was, “I don’t read anything anymore.”

Okay. You’re not going to read my blog. Got it.

This theme was reiterated during dinner with a couple of old friends a few days later. One of them, a very busy and successful business woman who is constantly on her phone, told me she doesn’t really read anything anymore either, and she felt reading was becoming a thing of the past. She explained that she felt it was because of the speed of technology and information. People wanted and needed to obtain information at a high speed, preferably verbally, which is why she preferred to listen to books rather than read them.

I listened to her explanation with a growing sense of disappointment. While I have a very different perspective on reading, I know that what she said represents an expanding cadre of like-minded individuals.

The best word to describe what I felt as I listened to her besides disappointment was pity. I’m sorry that, as a society, we have succumbed to the addiction of the screen. Why take the time to read when you can google something and get an answer in a matter of seconds? One problem with that is reliability of the information. We have become accustomed to obtaining information this way and trusting that it’s reliable. But is it? Depending on the subject, if we conduct a little research, delve into a matter more fully—read more deeply, in other words—we often find varying perspectives that might cause us to change our position.

There are other benefits to reading. It helps keep our minds sharp. It expands our vocabularies as well as our imaginations—our minds create the images of characters and settings in books instead of simulations on a movie or television screen that are generated for us. It’s relaxing and inspiring. It helps us sleep better, as long as it’s the paper variety and not a tablet or other lighted screen that tells our brain it’s time to wake up.

Like most worthwhile endeavors, reading takes effort. It’s not easy like an audible recording or blasting through the headlines just to pick up the main points. We miss so much when we do that. We miss names and details, emotions and morals. We miss the adventure and the human struggle.

One of the most interesting features of my Wix account is the analytics it provides. I can see which posts have received the most readership. The analytics tell me what time of day my blog gets the most traffic. I know that the top three posts read in the last 30 days are: Brodie and John, A Quick Update from the Sooner State, and The Big Push. If I change the view to the last 90 days, Brodie and John still takes the first spot with 111 views, but the rest of the list is very different. Most of my posts are less than 5 or 6 minutes in length, yet I can see that the average length of time visitors spend on my blog site is currently 2 minutes 19 seconds. There’s a lot of skimming going on, and that’s okay; at least you’re here.

It may beg the question, why do you blog, Kelly? I do it for many of the same reasons that I described above as benefits. It’s relaxing. It keeps my mind sharp. It’s cathartic and therapeutic. It also gives everyone who is interested in keeping up with my multiple myeloma journey a central place to go for information that comes straight from the horse’s mouth. It eases my level of frustration because I don’t have to repeat myself ad nauseum except to the few who, for perfectly understandable reasons, don’t read my blog. My 84-year-old father, for instance. He constantly hands his phone to one of us to “fix” because he’s pressed too many buttons and can’t figure out why he can’t find what he’s looking for. I give him a pass for not being able to keep track of my blog or even remember what it’s called. John is another. Until I left to come to Oklahoma, he was with me at nearly every doctor appointment or procedure. He gets to listen to me complain long before the complaints are translated into blog posts for everyone else to read. That being said, he still reads most of my posts, as do many of my extended family and long-time friends. Now and then, someone who doesn’t know me from Adam visits my blog. I have had visitors from the United Kingdom, North Korea, and Germany. I hope they find something that inspires them when they do visit and makes them want to come back.

I hope we never see a world like the one depicted in the Denzel Washington movie, “The Book of Eli.” Someday, I hope to write an ink-and-paper book that people can hold in their hands and devour with their minds...the kind of book that in a world like that would be coveted and treasured. Thankfully, there are still those among us who love books and reading, and we always will. If you’re reading this now, we are kindred spirits, and I thank you.