July 2014: If trying to explain reading and writing to those who don’t is near impossible—trying to justify blogging is harder by an order of magnitude—even to myself. My solution is not to justify—merely to do.

My blogging life is basically goalless. I like the zen nature of that, and paradoxically, it improves results.

Seth Godin

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I have previously written a rationalization for this blog which was correct—as far as it went—but probably not adequate. At the time, I didn’t deliberately leave anything out. It is more that I have had further thoughts since then (My subconscious, it appears, is ever busy—which concerns me somewhat. A subconscious, I gather, has no values. It is innately amoral)).

My greatest realization is that the process of writing this blog is beneficial—out of all proportion to the time and effort involved—in ways that I’m far from sure I understand myself. But I will say that it is a quite invaluable mental stimulus—and a veritable tonic for the spirit.

At the heart of all this is the discipline involved. It is no minor thing to write roughly (it varies) 800 words every day—close to 300,000 a year—indefinitely, on a wide variety of subjects, for no financial reward. And it is hard work which I hated at first. Note the latter. I used to feel the same about re-writing.

But the process is its own reward. It may seen senseless in purely practical terms—if one thinks in a financial sense—but I would like to think that we do a great deal in this life for reasons other than financial.

Blogging for me has now become a journey of the spirit—and an exploration at that—and a series of adventures. Ironically, this is exactly the kind of world I craved when I escaped from my hated boarding schools, all those decades ago, into a world of books.

But blogging is very far from mere escapism. It’s an active, creative, dynamic process which reminds me every day that my purpose in life is to write.

Is a sense of purpose important? As far as I am concerned, it is fundamental.

Will it ever yield useful results?

It already is—and I have no doubt at all, but that it will yield a great deal more in the future—even if I have no idea what they will be.

What I can say is that this blog will soon be linked with a new website which will contain the factual information about my books—and much else besides—which I know is what my readers crave.

This journey is taking longer than it should—life has a habit of being unpredictable—but things are moving at last.

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