fracas

So I was trying to get caught up on some chores that have been neglected while my daughter was hospitalized, and one of them was tending the numerous perennial beds that we’ve created over the last seven or eight years.  (This after I’d finished with the lolcatcherryhedge in the back yard.)

I don’t find it a chore, really. Not too terribly. Tending the beds is my thinking time. Despite being an icky job in some respects, it’s a job that gives me peace. Most of the time, (for fear of being asked to help) everyone leaves me alone while I do this job.

So I was thinking. Yes… despite posting lots of pop culture fluff (which doesn’t always give the impression I am a thinking being) I, fracas, think a lot. I have lots of opionions (mostly strong ones and if I might say so… the right ones… lol)  and I have lots of ideas (pretty good ones, I think).

Many of my fellow bloggers, as well as myself, have times when we just can’t find the time to post. Life happens.. things get busy and not for lack of desire but for lack of hours in the day and the choice (foolish or not) to spend some of them sleeping, we run into that “can’t update my blog” brick wall.

And so we apologize. Sometimes, we create posts where we try explain that we need to spend more time on other areas of our life. Sometimes, we even give the impression that we’ve perhaps been neglectful of our life by spending too much time blogging.

Sometimes, all of this is true. I’m sure there are people who become obsessed and truly do spend an amount of time that would be considered to be “over the top” on our blogs.

Sometimes though, a non-blogging, non-blogger member of our family or life has made us feel as though we have something wrong with us for spending time blogging.

Therein lies my definition of a blog snob and blog snobbery. My definition doesn’t refer to those who think their blog is better than yours, or that their blog is more important/intelligent/worthy/interesting than yours. No… I refer to those individuals (who are just not the internet type), who inevitably try make those of us (who are the internet type) feel bad for being so.

Do not let them do it to you. They are rife with blog snobbery. The kind that implies you are less than they, for choosing as your hobby… blogging!

The horror of it all.

After all, they might spend several hours a day on a more acceptable hobby… like golf, or knitting, or reading, or painting, or gardening. They don’t expect criticism for doing any of those activities, because those are acceptable. Those are better. Those are normal. This blogging thing, this whole internet thing… that can’t be considered worth spending time on. Those that do it must have something wrong with them, right?

So please, fellow bloggers. Think on your blogging in a new light. If it’s your hobby, why shouldn’t you blog without guilt? You wouldn’t guilt your husband/wife/friend for belonging to a book club and reading a printed book regularly, so why guilt yourself for having a hobby that brings you the pleasure and enjoyment in life that other peoples’ non-blogging hobbies bring to them?

Yes, yes. I understand. There are times in life where life just gets too full of, well… life, and we don’t have time for our hobbies. It happens to everyone, even those with non-blogging hobbies. That’s ok.  Sometimes our hobbies cease to bring us pleasure… and that too, happens even to people with non-blogging hobbies. Again, if you decide to stop blogging because you no longer receive pleasure from it, that’s ok too.  If you’re not blogging because someone in your life has made you feel bad for having a hobby they don’t view as worthwhile, then you’re a victim of blog snobbery. They’re a blog snob. Plain and simple. They’re looking down on you for having this awful hobby known as blogging, and that, my friend, just isn’t right.

Compare the time they spend at their hobbies. Include television watching too… because many people don’t realize how much time they actually spend watching tv, yet, will look down at (what they view as) people who spend too much time on the internet.

Oh. The photo? You’re wondering how it fits into the post? It’s a photo of one of the beds I was tending while doing all this thinking. Imagine that. I helped my fellow blogger feel validated for their choice of hobby, I tended something… and there were none of those angry lolcats to harm me.

It’s been a good day.