Blogging...

We watched a great episode of "House" this evening.

In it, one of the characters (a patient) writes an intensely personal blog in which she shares just about everything that she's thinking. Her husband repeatedly requests that she not blog about him, but she insists that she must - that he is a huge part of her life and she writes about her life in ts entirety.

The husband is also completely furious that whenever his wife needs to make a life decision before doing so she seeks feedback from her numerous blog friends.

"They read my blog and I read their blogs," she exclaims, "they are my friends and I need their help."

At one point while arguing the husband says, "You say you want a connection with other people and you get that through the Internet. It's not a connection you want. It's an audience. These people are not your friends. We're their entertainment."

Is my life entertainment for others?

There are some blogs that I read for entertainment because the bloggers happen to be very clever, witty and downright entertaining.

But, for the most part, the blogs that I tend to stick with are those where the blogger is sharing about his/her life. Somehow reading about other people's lives and experiences - hearing about their joys, their sorrows, their embarrassing moments, their triumphant moments, their thoughts - somehow that helps me to order my own world.

It's a connection of a sort.

And knowing that people come back to visit my blog - to hear my story...and to leave comments from time to time...well, there is something of a connection in that, too.

Is it friendship?

Of a sort.

There are women out there in the blogosphere whom I have never met, but I've been reading about their lives for several years. I know them in a way that maybe I don't know my "IRL" friends. I've come to care about them - even women whose ideas are quite divergent from my own, but whose lives are rich and interesting. If they lived near me - who knows - maybe we'd meet and go out for coffee.

I don't know if my life just provides entertainment for others, but I do take comfort in knowing that I am part of a community....albeit one that doesn't require me to leave the coziness of my couch or put on anything more fancy than my pajamas.