I've been trying to get out more. No, not out of the house (altho I really could use more exercise) but out to other blogs. Sometimes it's good for me. Sometimes it's not.

When I'm in a balanced and sane mental space, it's very good for me. I spark off other's thoughts, stimulated cogitation ticking over at high speed. Zip, zap, pow, zoom. Brilliant. And so easy to write out these insights.

When I'm not so balanced, I get discouraged. Then everyone else seems much more articulate, much smarter than me. Why bother to write when other people have already said it so well? There's more than a trace of envy there, a feeling of being diminished by the accomplishments of other people. That, it should go without saying, isn't such a healthy attitude.

Then I often resort to the expedient (and lame) tactic of putting links to those posts I think are good without much in the way of weaving the links into a narrative of my own. While this is an adequate solution, it does not soothe me at all. It feels flawed, a form of plagiarism, a way of relying on the sharp skills of other bloggers.

The thing is it shouldn't be a problem. Recognizing perceptive writing in other blogs and pointing it out to readers of this blog isn't a failure on my part. I'm not always a finely honed intellect with perfect writing. In many ways I'm still learning to use the blogging format to express myself.

Back to my opening point, I'm trying to participate in blogs I like. I'm trying to comment more on what has been written in these blogs, contribute something to the discussion. Sometimes I want to comment but feel verbally stuck and stupid. I strongly dislike making a token comment like "Yeah, me too!" I feel this kind of comment almost sucks the life out of the discussion. It certainly raises the signal-to-noise ratio in a bad way.

Well, that's enough of this public narcissistic navel-gazing. Some days me be smart word writer. Yeah.