What is your intention in blogging?

Blogs exist for fun, for social interaction, as information sources or portals, to comment on politics, to gossip about the entertainment business, to inspire, to share and more. They can chart our growth and struggles, be a place to share a favorite recipe or show pictures of our hometown sports team. Blogs are whatever we make them.

Spiritual bloggers often share many of the same motivations as bloggers in general. Yet they have differences, too, because they tend to focus in the direction of the eternal, of the meaning of life and how to more deeply connect to God or purpose or to a point deeper within ourselves.

Spiritual bloggers are not alone in these kinds of pursuits, so perhaps a better phrase to use instead of ’spiritual bloggers’ is the term ’seekers’. I use the word in the context of someone who is looking for a deeper sense of what life is about or what they are all about. So, seekers, in this sense of the word, is more inclusive. It counts philosophers, theologians, physicists, martial artists, yoga devotees, healers, agnostics, atheists, humanitarians, social activists and more among its members.

If we kind of scoop up spiritual bloggers and seekers into one big basket, we can ask a question: What is it that we are intending to accomplish with our blogs?

One person may say, “I don’t want to accomplish anything; it is just a place for me to kinda vent and sort through some of my thoughts.” Another person may say, “I just enjoy writing poetry and this gives me a place to organize and present my work.”

What is you intention in blogging? What are you looking for, or what would you like to accomplish or see accomplished?

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There are times when a certain thing occurs in the comment section of a post. Comments really take off and grow, and deeper discussions occur that are both fun and challenging. What is the thing that causes this ‘magic’ to occur when it is happening? What is it that causes that spark to ignite and continue a discussion?

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Attitude? Me? Are you kidding?

Spiritual blogs typically represent people who are sincerely seeking a deeper understanding of life and of their own self. While it is great to maintain a good sense of humor, the spiritual path is also serious including deep physical, emotional, mental and spiritual issues that are associated with such pursuits.

Many owners of spiritual blogs are guardedly hopeful in finding a community of like-minded seekers on the web. Why so guarded? Because they have been burned before – and not just by the annoying trolls, vampires and piranhas that circle the web, but also by religion, spouses, deception, disappointment, abuses and life traumas.

Too often, whether in blogging or in real life, there are people who feel compelled to mock such seekers, disguising their scorn through couch potato counseling, thinly veiling their shark-tooth bite with humor, sarcasm, wit and constant hints of their superior intelligence. This happens in various forms, both in blogging and in everyday life.

‘Spiritual junkies’ are an example of this. In a blogging context, they will sometimes float in and out under the disguise of being an anonymous commenter or hide behind a screen name, rarely using their real name. They seldom fool the seasoned bloggers in the crowd, but they can cause havoc on a site - usually much to their delight.

They post comments with an air of authority, but the comments are vaporous and shallow, and betray their ignorance. It is okay to admit you are ignorant, and okay to be overcoming things we are ignorant about, but it is not okay to fly in the airship called ignorance and be bombing the countryside below with ignorance wrapped in pretty little bows named ‘authority’.

Of course, this isn’t happening on every blog, but when it starts sometimes a frenzy develops. One blogger noted recently:

On my blog I cannot remember anyone picking an argument, or even being a nuisance. [Blog name withheld]… seems to suffer a bunch of commenters who hover like gnats, making strangely irrelevant comments and playing games with one another in ways which make sense only to themselves.

Sometimes this gets so annoying that the blogger quits, or turns off comments or is forced to start screening every single comment. The smug junkie has won, at least for the moment. But what have they won? Nothing, because they are losing yet another battle in a war being fought within.

Spewing half-baked recipes, lathered in a batter of contempt, is not doing anyone any good, and is only perpetuating a static state of ignorance. However, some junkies decide it is their mission to come in and ‘shake up the crowd’ with their quips and assertions, and their use of tasteless names or mocking comments. There is a difference between healthy dialog and challenges that help us open our minds and hearts more deeply, and between walking into someone’s home and spreading mud all over the carpet, ripping up the furniture and breaking the dishes. These kinds of junkies are abusers, practicing abusive behavior and practicing instilling abuse into others.

When the junkies are called out they feign hurt, or flee, or increase the viciousness of their attacks or they change tactics. Hopefully the change in tactics includes becoming sincere and more in touch with the essential kindness of their hearts. Hurt and abuse is something that can perpetuate from generation to generation. It takes courage to stop the abuse and stand up for yourself.

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