In 2012, there were an estimated 31 million blogs in America, about 40 per cent of them set up by women. There are no official statistics for blogging for 2014 yet, but it is believed by Web scholars that women now comprise more than 50 per cent of bloggers, it is, in so many ways a natural medium for those who are communicative, family or community minded, or creative.
“Blog” is a clunky term for a medium that is so enabling, transformative and potentially creative. In the Corporate Nation, whose culture is not owned almost entirely by mega-corporations making money off of hate and anger and violence,the blog may also be a salvation.
It is certainly has been a salvation for me, a professional author whose entire industry has been corporatized and profitized. There is no such thing really as a book published only because it is good, books are now only published only if they are profitable. If they are good, that’s a lucky break. Publishers are run by marketers, not editors. The same pattern has overwhelmed the film industry, TV, much of the art world, the entire spectrum of media and politics.
Blogs are the anti-corporate medium. They are our voice, our identity, our means of individual and idiosyncratic expression. Corporations are already eyeing the blog, and drooling over this new market, but this culture will be harder for them to gobble up, at least for awhile. Truth is precious, truth lives. Truth, like information, wants to be free.
Blogs – they term is an abbreviation of the term weblog – are a generational thing, people over 50 generally are uneasy about blogs, the younger they get, the more comfortable people are with them. The truth is, blogs are easier to set up than TV’s. They are not about technology, they are about creativity.
Maria is not technologically-inclined, but her blog has enabled her creativity, freedom and her art. She has sold every piece of art she has made in the past year on her gentle and beautiful blog, this has literally made her dream of being an artist possible. Blogs have done the same for many people.
In October, we held an Open House, more than 1,500 people from all over the country came, the only promotion or publicity we did was on our blogs. This is where creativity now lives.
Blogs are free, simple and efficient to maintain. They are the new means of expression, and perhaps the most vibrant and relevant. One of my writing students asked me why she should think of a blog. It depends, I said, whether you want to be part of the conversation or not. Whether you are writing for yourself or for others as well.
Tonight, Pamela Rickenbach from Blue Star Equiculture is coming to the farm to spend the weekend with us and some creative and supportive friends. We are going to help her set up a blog, and I will teach blogging workshops Saturday and Sunday morning. Pamela is a born blogger, if ever there was one, and the goal is for her to leave us with her own means of expression, identity and community. Nobody can take a blog away from you, you can say anything you want you can build a compelling, communicative, loyal and supportive community all by yourself, courtesy of your own mind and courage. I know, I’ve done it.
Pamela is at a challenging point in her life, which she has devoted to saving and celebrating the work of the horse. On her blog, she will find her tribe, build her community, spread her message, whatever else happens in her life. She has a lot to say, it ought to be heard, no news organization or cable news network is likely to ever give her a voice in the mainstream. That is for shouters and dividers and the purveyors of awful news.
The Bedlam Farm Journal started out as a sales tool for my books, in recent years it has become a book all of it’s own, it is my living memoir. People tell me all of the time that they are too busy to start a blog, write on it, or maintain it. They say they are anxious about writing honestly about their lives. Is it dangerous? What if their parents won’t like it? What if their bosses see it? What if creepy people sent nasty messages?
The last day or so has been a blur for me, I had some wicked stomach thing, I was sick and out of it. I am coming to life this morning, I can’t think of a better way to recover than to host this blogging experiment, which I will share with you. All weekend, we will be blogging about Pamela’s blog, and through it, the joy of creativity and expression. It is still very much alive.