Lumps in the Oatmeal

Posted on July 4, 2005 in Blogging

I wonder what effect it has on the mind to write a blog which focuses entirely on a specific topic? To what degree do directories such as Kinja or Yahoo compel us to think inside the box?

Lynn had Kinja up today and I very nearly suggested this site to them in a fit of hubris until I realized that I didn’t fit into any of their categories. When I started this blog, I resolved that it would be about — well, the cliche is Life. Subject or focus does not pertain to this blog in the sense that the Kinja editors would like. You will see me write about personal experience, culture, mental illness, religion (especially mythology), morals, politics, etc., rolling from one to the other without skipping. Kinja’s editors like the lumps in the oatmeal (which is fine, I actually confess to liking them, too) and they throw out the rest as incomprehensible.

To knowingly shape one’s own blog to congeal around one of these categories strikes me as a denial of self. Both liberals and conservatives do this. A few manage to inject their personal life into their politcal blog entries but too many others emulate the example of journalists and try to be journalists. Clumping around the newspaper — paper or online — abolishes all aspects of the self except those chosen by the media. This blog seeks to be a full reflection of the writer, to be the whey of the bowl of oatmeal as well as a few choice clots.

The garage door across the way just squeaked: Here and now, that sound matters more to me than the antics of the Bush Administration or Nicole Kidman’s weight. But I do not surrender the right to speak of such things. Blogging, I aver, is not populist journalism — it’s a redefinition, a departure from the usual military formations of print media. It leads its readers to savor another human being boiled oats and brown sugar combined.