This year I vowed to do it more. No, I’m not talking about sex. Although, that might be more interesting. But maybe not. Actually, this year I vowed to write more and publicly. I started my blog in October and have slowly gained the courage and inspiration to blog regularly thanks mostly to the positive feedback I’ve gotten from my friends (you two know who you are) and the discovery of new people attracted to my blog. Turns out there is room for my voice, my opinions, and my ideas. I even generated a little controversy and have been called a “Limousine Liberal.” If only. Can you imagine driving around in a limo, eating caviar, drinking champagne and saving the world. I vote yes.
But I digress. I used to say “I should write.” A lot of my brilliant, creative, passionate friends still say the same thing. But many of them still haven’t gotten around to it. I mean really they should express themselves. These are the people who grew up on TV, who are living in San Francisco or across the country in similar communities questioning the mixed values in our world. They have truly amazing stories to lend their perspective on the massive upheaval we’re experiencing. Their perspective is only shared with the lucky few who know them personally. I wish they would write. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. You better get going or I’ll steal your ideas! Oh, and if my threatening weren’t enough, try this reasoning from the Doc:
Sigmund Freud
Sharing is healing and so forth.
Preaching aside, it seems a lot of folks are doing it. Funny how when you set an intention things fall into place to get you going. Serendipitously, a few months after I made my big “I’m gonna do it” statement, I landed this cool job at Free Range Content to help create products that let bloggers share their perspective on things in a much richer, more interesting way. Wow, for a person who loves to read, loves other people’s voices, and is a champion of bloggers, it’s an amazing place to be! The best part has been discovering so many interesting bloggers who have such unique ways of expressing themselves and are drawn to a variety of topics I didn’t know I was interested in until I read their blogs.
WARNING: Shameless but useful promotion up next
We just launched a new program for clp.ly called “Blog in 5” encouraging the blogger community to share their web finds and ideas more frequently. Since it was my idea, and I work for the company, and I like bloggers, I am compelled to participate. And, being the goal-driven, organized, cheer-leading Leo that I am, I even have a TOPIC. Guess what it is. That’s right, Bloggers. God love ’em. I’m just going to sit down every day and feature a new one that I’ve found and tell you why I either love them or loathe them. I’m kind of a high-tolerance type so the love will be more frequent than the loathe I can assure you.
First post comes in 5 minutes. Watch this space for more and start your own. I’m dying to read you.
Mary Gilbert 
I agree on all accounts and as a fellow “writer”, I concur that I wish that some of my friends who have lots of great things to share, would share them. I think I am going to invite my friends who cook really well to guest blog on occasion. I find that many people don’t like the word “blog”. I was one of them and I honestly still don’t like it. Some people just aren’t into it, but I feel you.