Elie's Expositions

A bereaved father blogging for catharsis... and for distraction. Accordingly, you'll see a diverse set of topics and posts here, from the affecting to the analytical to the absurd. Something for everyone, but all, at the core, meeting a personal need.


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Thursday, March 23, 2006

Stress and Blogging

"I really wish I was less of a thinking man
And more a fool who's not afraid of rejection"
- Billy Joel, "Sleeping With The Television On"

Where have I been lately? Nowhere - in many senses of the word. I'm still working, surviving, coping as best as I can. But my stress level has been unbelievably high, and my blogging has suffered accordingly.

I sort of envy bloggers like my friend Jack, who can produce well-written posts at a breakneck pace on a wide variety of topics. While my posts, like his, are an eclectic mix, and while I certainly strive for quality - or at least coherency - I find it a slow process at best. When I'm decidedly not at my best, my blog-muse almost totally shuts down.

The Billy Joel quote above has been meaningful to me since the album it's from, Glass Houses, first appeared during my sophomore year in college. At that time I applied it to my early, supremely inexperienced and staggeringly awkward attempts at dating. My shyness and nervousness were huge impediments to meeting any members of the opposite sex, and in fact I had very little dating experience before I started going out with Debbie years later. In those earlier days, I often wished that I could stop over-analyzing and over-worrying, and just "go for it".

Now I find the same hesitancy with regard to my writing. When my creativity feels at a low ebb, I just can't bring myself to post what doesn't feel sufficiently thought-out, sufficiently finished, sufficiently polished.

It's a vicious cycle though, because my lack of posting has robbed me of an important outlet for dealing with my stress. The more upset I am, the harder it is to post, and yet the more I feel the need to do so to help relieve those bad feelings.

OK. Time to stop thinking and re-reading, and hit that Publish Post button.

See you again soon - I hope...

3 Comments:

At 3/23/06, 6:19 PM, Blogger Jack Steiner said...

Hi Elie,

Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate it.

I sometimes wonder if I blog more frequently when I am stressed. It is relatively easy for me to pump my posts out, but the quality is relatively mixed.

Writing is one of my releases, it allows me to escape.

 
At 3/24/06, 3:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

At some point in the future, I may start a blog. I only hope that my writing comes close to yours.

SDFR

 
At 3/26/06, 9:07 AM, Blogger SS said...

Elie, I was starting to get a bit worried about you! I hope your life calms down a bit soon, so you can feel good enough to write. Or, at least to feel less stressed. I know I miss you when you're not around... Feel good.

 

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