Why I Created This Site

My first post was on How I Setup This Site. More for my future reference than anything. But thoughts and experiences behind why I created this site are much more interesting. God knows there are enough blogs to fill insert large area/geographic structure here. This site is not a recipe to share or a new way of accomplishing your top 10 goals this year. This site is the result of several realizations, the most influential being that writing is thinking.

I hated writing in school, I frequently struggled to meet the arbitrary word limit. I remember being forced to write non-stop for 10 minutes every day in a college English class. I loved it. How did I hate writing research papers, but loved writing for 10 minutes every day? I’ve not quite found the answer to that, but there seem to be several benefits to writing including less stress/anxiety, better sleep, and deeper understanding. They seem to stem from this core idea that writing is thinking.

I enjoy wondering, but the curse of that gift is spending a lot of time in my head. It truly is a gift, don’t get me wrong, but as with all gifts it has downsides, and can take a turn into paralysis and over thinking. I’ve found the best ways to overcome those tendencies are to create something. The two important parts being to 1) actually do something and not just think about doing something 2) have that action oriented toward a creative work and not just following instructions to make something.

Doing forces me to actually take the things I’m wondering or pondering over and finish the process, so much of my wondering is untested and that creates a vagueness that is frustrating. Maybe the duality of having wonder and tenacity creates that frustration.

Creating reflects the Creator, the opposite of consumption/destruction/decreation. Humans are most satisfied when they are creating, and most miserable when they are consuming.

Somewhere between the threads of exploring the idea that writing is thinking, being more creator, less consumer, and turning my wonderings into concrete creations, lies the reason for this site.