Blogger's block

What do you do when you don't know what to blog?

What does it mean if you don't know what to blog?

It's been almost a week since my last entry here, and I'm not really sure why. When I started out on this blogging journey, I told myself that I would sit down each night, think through the day, and dump out the most "ponderous" and "interesting" point of the day. I've not failed there - and frequently there's something of note.

But for the past 5 nights, nothing. Hmm.

I suppose, if I'm to be honest with myself, then this itself is the topic that's come to mind - what does it mean that nothing stands out for blogging?

• Am I working too much (I told myself I would not write about work issues directly, though the human aspect of work is fair game, as I've already written on twice)?
• Am I finding some other outlet for my thoughts?
• Am I suppressing something?
• Am I too damn busy? (There's something there, but I'm not convinced that's all of it)
• Is global warming shutting down synapses? (We're teetering on the bleeding edge of viability with this topic...)

My grandfather, a respected English professor in his lifetime (seen in caricature at left), used to tell me in regard to writing: "Get in, say it, and get out. Let style handle itself. But by all means, just WRITE!" In a pre-Nike-enlightened world, this was tantamount to "Just do it." For a type-A mathematical mind, this was sage and understandable advice, and the most permanent scholarly (though not most important) impact he had upon my life. It successfully got me through a major in Philosophy and the hazards of having to write for the professional work audience.

But what do you do when writing is the whole point, and there's no topic jumping out at you?

My answer, then, is this blog entry. I'm writing about my lack of knowing what to write about. And in the process, I've found a small topic (my grandfather). I searched the Web to find some kind of "visual" representation for his scholarly life, looking primarily for covers of one of his 4 books (Amazon doesn't have pics, but does have his books listed). But instead, I found mention of the gift of his library and the above bookplate, which I'd never seen before. I think it's pretty cool - I reached out into the ether and discovered a hidden area of my personal past.

Pretty wild. Probably not terribly fascinating blog-stuff, but who knows?