Pondering What Atom Asked

Atom asked me in my last post what I get out of writing this blog.

First, Atom, I would like to thank you for the gift of a question that hasn't got anything to do with how to write. You are the first person, I believe, in this blog, ever to ask me anything that wasn't related to something I'd already said in the blog somewhere.  I don't blame the core group who appear pretty much every day.  Loretta gave me a banner, and she and a couple of others have honestly tried to do what I ask, in this role that has somehow descended on me, of becoming a teacher.  But you have maybe noted in my sidebar that appears beside every post that I didn't want to become a teacher again, and that in this blog I hoped to be part of a conversation about writing (all the people who visit my blog providing me things to answer, and vice versa). I've done the vice versa but it has become a big job for me, since there was nothing for me to say in answer to anything.  I probably should have quit trying, and just let the blog die, while I waited for a "melody for me to riff on".  I didn't do that.  There were a few people who commented, and for their sakes I tried to give all I could about being a writer, whether it was what they wanted to know or not.  I became a teacher, exactly what I didn't want to be.

You mentioned a motto someone said, an important philosophical teaching of the East that I believe in.  "Giving and Receiving must be in balance."

Here, with a few exceptions, it's "I give, they take."



I think I'll post something every day until I feel I know the answer to your question fully.  What am I getting out of this blog?