Half-Assed Blogging Has Its Rewards

Happy New Year!

I realize it’s February 5th.

It’s funny, because when I started this blog around this time last year, I had every intention of posting on a weekly basis, if not with more frequency.

So why is it that I’ve succeeded at publishing a blog post less than ten times over the course of twelve months?

I’ve given this question some serious thought, and my gut answer always seems to presume some form of perfectionism present in my character. This is problematic, however, after a perusal of my posts. I know exactly what you’re thinking, if not saying out loud. “Paul! You’re nowhere near perfect!”

I won’t argue.

In fact I will fess up to an embarrassing truth, since we’re on the subject. Reality is that I have a collection of draft posts, that, because they took me so long to complete (if indeed they had ever even been completed),  and, due to their subject matter being either commentary on current events, or subjects specific to the time of year, have become highly irrelevant simply because they were not published in a timely manner.

It makes sense. Writing about the news of three weeks ago makes you as relevant as the magazines at your dentist’s office.

Since you need specifics, and I’m not willing to give them, a compromise is in order.

I have chosen as the sole example of my failure my most recent effort (I reserve the right to recycle some of these as they regain pertinence over time). That article was a commentary on the inauguration of Barack Obama, but before I could coherently elaborate my opinion on the matter, it was already the 29th, and the spirit of my commentary was no longer consistent with how I actually felt.

As a bonus example of how bad it’s actually been, immediately prior to the previous example, I started writing about new year’s resolutions, but by the time I got around to it, Obama was swearing in.

You get the picture.

The evidence is overwhelming.

As much as I would like to attribute my failure to publish to my aforesaid perfectionism and/or my striving therefor, I must face the grim reality of the real reasons, laziness and procrastination.

Let’s face it, I could not have been less productive over the last few months even if the weather had been nice.

All is not tragic, however, as the title of this piece courageously states. By not publishing these not-so-interesting exercises in brain farting, I benefit by having more time to dwell on my failure to publish blog posts. In the process, my reputation also gets the tarnishing it so probably deserves.

But the greatest benefit of all probably devolves to you, dear reader, as you were spared so much of my opinion over recent months that you remain the unchanged person you always assumed you would remain.

And as a result of my ever-growing collection of unpublished drafts (I’m not talking beer), I get to publish, one day in the distant future, a collection of all of my unpublished works, after time will have rendered them even less important.

So as you can see, being a half-assed contributor to the blogosphere does indeed have its rewards. You just have to know where to look to find them.

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