I’ve been meaning to get back to writing the blog because I miss doing it. I miss the people I got to know here (or rather where my old blog used to be, at its old web address) and the relief and sense of sanity I got from knowing there were people who had some of the same thoughts and similar perspectives that I sometimes have, when I’m not feeling confounded and at a loss for thoughts. Many of the people whose blogs I used to follow are no longer writing them, and although I’m not sure it makes any sense, those who are still writing I haven’t kept up with, because somehow writing and reading seem to be part of the same daily routine, and when I let one go unattended so did the other.

Because I’ve largely lost track of my old circle, I feel more at a loss than ever. The internet changes so quickly, and it seems harder now than before to find the things I want to share in. Is it just my own perception or is there a much greater emphasis on the web on for-profit commercial sites that are short on content and big on flashy soundbites?

I’m not an expert in the subjects that interest me, like inequality, poverty, and economic injustice, and their various related subcategories (consumer culture, anarchism, radical frugality, the do-it-yourself ethos, and whatever else), so I kind of need frames of reference to write about these things. I need to be able to point to an article and say, yeah, that’s interesting, that’s something that sounds right to me and that contains some valuable insights. And then maybe I can add my two cents as well. But if I can’t find any source material, it leaves me with nothing to say. It seems foolish to write something like, “Well, I don’t really know enough about these things, but this is my impression of what’s wrong with [fill in the blank].”

But rather than feel stymied, I think I will try to just write what I can, to feel my way around and eventually maybe get some sort of momentum, find some kind of groove that makes sense to me.

Until I do, I’m thinking that I what I will post will be a combination of dreary explanations of issues I’m trying to sort out, interspersed with purely self-indulgent navel gazing. And then I tend to also just post about about random things, like commenting on the articles I find on Arts & Letters Daily, which has not ceased to be a treasure trove. Since no one is reading, it doesn’t really matter, so I think I can feel free to bore or amuse myself.