Explanation of Hiatus

There were many reasons for me to take a hiatus from blogging. When I boiled it all down, I was left with one main reason: I didn't want to suck.

Now, I never set out to achieve blogging greatness. This blog was created for personal expression, for writing development, for ego validation, and to add my 2 cents to the internet. I never intended to spend the time and effort to make this blog world-famous; my family and career are more important and carry more potential for my self-actualization goals.

However, I always intended to be read. I wanted people to read my blog and usually come away with new thoughts or knowledge. I did not want to bore people. It is hard not to blog your opinions without a little self-indulgence and borderline arrogance, but I never wanted to come off as a know-it-all. Worse still, I never wanted to be that guy who is so impressed with his own brilliance that he can no longer critically read himself or receive honest feedback from others.

Also, I realize that I write too many words--especially for a blog entry. A reader wants only a few paragraphs from a blog so that they can get on with their life, but that is a real challenge for me.Even in school: when an instructor says 5-7 pages and everyone else is wondering how they can write that many pages, I have trouble cutting ten pages down to seven.

I had many brilliant things to say about life, CSR, politics, etc. Or, so I thought. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had a lot more learning and thinking to do before I would become as smart as I think I am. I needed to refine my thoughts in order to achieve brevity and insightfulness simultaneously. I found that I could only prevent bad-blogging through abstinence.

So I spent a few weeks thinking, evaluating, and trying to achieve a reasonable humility. Humility for me is arrogance for others; it is a relative term and I set my own standard for humility at a more-inflated level than others might. Therefore, if you think to yourself that my attempt at humility has a long way to go, realize I have come pretty far down and I am trying to stay grounded.

I feel bad about not blogging regularly. I hate having gaps in my blog archive. I don't know why I feel that way, though. A gap means that I had nothing pressing to say and chose to remain silent. That is rare in this culture. Every channel on the TV is jammed pack with nothing to say; the best shows are rarely broadcast to maximize their advertising revenue while the drivel fills in the gaps that should just be static.

To sum up, this is Phase II of my blogging. I am now seeking brevity and insightfulness. If my blog entry cannot edify the reader quickly, then it needs to be refined rather than posted. I write to develop my thoughts and skill; however, there is no sense in writing if it is not readable by others. I write for myself, and I write for you to read. This blog is my gift to you, whomever you are. Thank you for taking the time to read me.