blogs blogs blogs

So as if I had nothing else to do lately.... I keep seeing that giant list of Personal Development Blogs I posted about y/day and I feel strangely compelled to waste some time perusing them all and selecting the ones I really connect with to add into my Bloglines page.

It's totally crazy to assume I can do this right now though. My life is supremely busy enough at present. I am however, really glad I have taken the time to make this list work for me here as I can now choose a new blog on a whim to go read and enjoy.

I don't listen to much "news" on the radio anymore and nor do I read much of it in the papers. The "news" as we get these days, is often a bunch of half-truths and hearsay tackled together in some poor cousin version of Gossip! I don't find any useful information I can actually do something with. If I felt I had the power to change the state of the world via listening to the "news", I'd have done so long ago. All the "news" ever did was frustrate me, make me anxious, sad, depressed and feel incredibly powerless against the the forces of evil present in the world.

When I was younger, I used to write carefully constructed letters to the editor (LTTE) of our local paper in protest at various political/social issues I thought were just plain wrong! I don't even do that anymore! It doesn't change anything other than release my angst in a public forum and that doesn't engender much change I've found.

Blogs on the other hand do something entirely differently than make any commentary on the "news". They are almost like Letters to the Editor in a way - but, there is a different kind of energy to them even so. Blogs also provide the viewpoint of one individual just like LTTE. However, blogs have a voice that is very different on the whole to those you would read in the Whine Columns of any tabloid newspaper.

That voice which I generally read in a blog, is unique and natural for the most part. It is entirely contrived in the heart, mind, soul and experience of the writer. They are not as carefully constructed as most LTTE's but they are often much more coherent all the same.

I find these voices much more informative and world-changing in their content. There are thoughts in the collective mind of bloggers across the Web 2.0.07 that resonate with the same fundamental concepts. I find myself revelling in this collective consciousness despite the diversity and differences within the various individual postings.

There is more "news" to me in the blogosphere than in the current commercial excuse for information via traditional media. I feel compassion for journalists of integrity who love their work and seek to make a difference in this world through making sure people hear the truth behind the stories. Thing is, so much of that truth is either cleverly hidden or just blatantly hijacked by commercial interests. So many people can be duped into believing so much that is just plain wrong! All it seems to take is the illusion that "Everyone thinks like this". When the "news" is broadcast, the facts are presented from the perspective of the Little everyMan and the hard core truth is either ignored or hidden and I guess that must frustrate honest Journalists who want do more than just tell stories.

I guess one of the problems with The Truth in news is that The Truth is so polarizing. It either is or it isn't. There are no shades of grey, no fences to sit on, no compromises, no negotiations. Truth just IS. It isn't even relative only that people make it so. The "news" on TV and in papers seems to present this image of it being the wellspring for The Truth. I have found it lacking rather badly in that respect.

Blogs do something entirely different to "news". They provide information across all truths (not necessarily The Truth)... the truths of individuals, from their experiences and thoughts, their temperaments and talents. These truths are all relative in that sense as they are as unique as the fingerprints of their creators. There are shades of colour, diversity of idea, opinion and even challenging rhetoric. This doesn't offend me in the same way as traditional news media has. I can accept a multiplicity of unique truths because these are truths of individuals. They are not packaged as the collective opinion of the Little everyMan.

So, instead of hearing and reading "the news", I choose to read blogs for my information right now because they sing to me in far, far greater ways of the potential in mankind toward justice and peace for all - many truths leading toward The Truth.

How great the power of the individual who has mastered the art of gentle words.