Holden Caulfield's Lover has a wonderful entry on Why We Blog. HCL frequently has wonderful entries, bu the way. He makes some interesting points, none of which I'd argue with.

But I think I'd add to it. I like reading blogs because it broadens my life, albeit vicariously. If I had sixteen-inch biceps I'd be happy all the time, right? Well, no. HCL has his own stuff to deal with, along with his sixteen inch biceps. I have a blast reading mumblefuck's doings in the world of the New York club scene. I get perspective on my own struggles reading about how Glennalicious contends with his first year of teaching in the New York City public school system. The unique and wonderful perspective of JockoHomo always leaves me with root beer barrels of insight for my mind to suck on all day. The gals at Neversane are a trio of latter day Samuel Pepys. And then there's the prolific and brillian offerings at Uffish Thoughts. And of course, I routinely check in with Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Reynolds to keep up on what's going on in the world. Glenn is dangerous though. I just get lost in there for hours.

As to why I blog, I think it has something to do with the fact that I find it sort of edgy. Dancing around all those issues of self-disclosure. It's sort of like the thrill and fear of coming out, whether it be as a Gay man or as someone into S/M--on an on-going basis. By that I mean, you start off in a place where you think that you're indescribably unique ("I'm the only one"), take the risk of self-disclosure, and find out that in fact there's a whole community of like-minded individuals. And, it's always a risk. That's what makes it interesting. I think to some extent I live in fear of getting an email from a reader that basically says, "Man, you are so fucked up."

And, of course, there's the fact that it's writing, and I spent just about my entire session with my therapist last night talking about how I want to be a writer, but I can't figure out how that would work.