Blogging gone wrong...?

What exactly does that mean? Someone just told me (posted to me on EZ Board, actually), that my blog is cited by those at her shala as an exanple of how yoga blogging can go wrong.

To me, blogging (any blogging, yoga or otherwise) goes wrong if it veers into the illegal or the tortious. An example of illegal might be the conveying of material, non-public (insider) information on a publicly traded stock. An example of tortious might be telling a lie about someone, also known as libel. I suppose blogging goes wrong if it conveys misinformation or omits important information, and the readers are relying upon it as an authority for accurate information. An example of that would be a blog about childproofing your house that fails to recommend anchoring heavy furniture to the wall. Blogging could also go wrong if it harms the blogger - if the blogger is constantly scuffling with his or her readers. I saw that on one blog: the blogger couldn't seem to stop himself from answering the obnoxious charges of some angry reader, and so he eventually and wisely removed the blog's comments capability temporarily until things died down.

But other than that...how can blogging go wrong?

The blogger usually has a purpose in blogging - self-expression, clearing out the cobwebs, practicing writing, practicing writing to an audience, conveying information that the blogger thinks is going to be relevant to someone. Whatever that purpose is, the blogger is wise to stay with his or her intention. Ultimately, the desires of the readers may shape those intentions down the line. And in some cases, perhaps they don't.

The reader's job is to read blogs that interest him or her. Continuing to read a blog that annoys or inflames him or her is just really self-harm. Writing scathing critiques to the blogger in response then becomes harm to the blogger. If I weren't into all the yoga lingo, I might substitute the word "abuse" in place of "harm".

A troll is someone who plants seeds of discord in a public forum. A blogger cannot be a troll because the blogger's forum is not exactly a public forum. It is essentially a private journal laid open. Its purpose is defined by the blogger and the blogger alone. A blogger "goes wrong," I suppose, however, if the blogger spends more time answering trolls then following the blog's original intention.

Bringing it back to the personal, the intention behind my blog is primarily personal and creative expression. I do not do extensive research about ANY topic I blog about. There may VERY WELL be misinformation on here, and I do not lead anyone to believe that I am an authority on...well, ANYTHING. The secondary intention behind my blog is to process my thoughts in an orderly fashion as a way of stopping the chatter. Although there are those who believe that my writing is creating the chatter, it is actually quite the other way around. I write in order to dispose of the thoughts. I put them on paper, and that way I don't circle around and back to them. If I can't exactly quiet my monkey mind, I can certainly "crate" it...here.

There is no way I am going to censor my writing in order to appear more enlightened than I am, to appear less ego-driven, to make sure that I am not writing something that betrays a lack of understanding of whatever yoga I am practicing or whatever else I am endeavouring to do, be it knitting, cooking, mothering, shopping. I don't know about other bloggers because I am not in their heads. If their blogs reflect a mind freed from the bonds of ego and desire, then wow, they are lucky, and I can see that yoga works and works FAST. If their blogs reflect a desire to appear that way (hey, fake it til you make it, right?), then, well, that is absolutely their prerogative, and, I respect it completely. Freedom of expression. Use your blog for whatever you want to use it for. Use it to tell your honest thoughts, or use it to tell the thoughts you wish to be true. Use it to confess your weaknesses. Or not.

How can a blog that does any of that go wrong?

Like many people (I want to say "most people", but I really don't know if this is true), I see myself as an amalgamation of many things, many traits, many identities. I live a VERY mainstream life, I am married to one of the most mainstream men I could ever have dramed up, I live in a mainstream neighborhood, I socialize with mainstream people for the most part. Sometimes I veer toward the spoiled - I like luxury. Sometimes I veer toward the crunchy - I can't seem to practice yoga on the Upper East Side (try as I have) and always end up in the East Village. I color my own hair (my mainstream girlfriends gasp in horror!), I never wear my jewelry unless the Husband practically forces me. I was an English major in college, not an Economics or International Relations major like most people from my mainstream world. My favorite English professor used to scratch his head at the contradictions my persona presented..."Intellect with a JAP clip in her hair" or something like that.

But most relevantly to this discussion, I am a yogi with a Type A personality. I was born with my personality, and to the extent that I wasn't born with it, I learned it growing up in a family of overachievers. Hi Mom! You can take the yogi out of the Type A family, but you can't take the Type A out of the yogi. Or maybe you can! But I am not there yet. I just simply am NOT! SO WHAT! If we were all born at the enlightened ends of our journeys, there would be nothing left to accomplish in our lives.

I embrace my flaws. They make me me. If someone doesn't like me and my flaws, they should read someone else's blog - someone who either IS fully enlightened and freed from the bonds of ego and desire, or someone who pretends to be or someone who wishes to be...(no judgement from me here...and I am not talking about ANYONE in particular...I read A LOT of blogs, and not just yoga blogs either).

People tend to get upset about that which they see in others which reminds them of themselves.....If my ambition, my ego, my impatience...my current place on my yoga journey...makes you feel all constricted inside...makes you feel like fixing me....makes you feel angry, then maybe I can help YOU: ask yourself what it is I can teach you via my flaws and weaknesses. And then listen to the answer.

YC