Why I blog and what Descartes is all about

I’ve been neglecting this blog over the last few weeks. There have been a lot of things going on that I would have liked to cover, but a combination of pressures at work and at home have simply left me without the time or the energy to do so. Rather than fight a losing battle with real life or go through the motions for a while, I found it easiest just to drop everything until I could find a bit of time to really focus on it. Sorry for the sudden and unexplained absence.

One of the side-effects of this impromptu sabbatical was that the added distance led me to consider why I blog and what I get out of it. I like having a space for organising my thoughts, both serious and frivolous, and I like the back-and-forth exchange of ideas. But this morning, I realised that above all else, what motivates me is a desire to challenge and correct errors.

A crisis of confidence and purpose, and a new approach

Confession time: I’m not really sure where I’m going with this blog, and I don’t know what my long-term purpose is.

I started blogging because I was trying to sort my thoughts out. As long as I’m finding my way through all this, there’s not a problem, but if I ever reach a satisfactory conclusion, it changes the whole situation and I don’t know what I’m going to do.

I don’t want to spend my time blogging if I’m not adding anything different or important. I’ve never been happy with just repeating things that hundreds of other people are saying, but nor do I see any appeal in just being a contrarian for the sake of it. I’m also concerned that I might end up allowing my life to be dominated by what I don’t believe in a way that could be unhealthy.

My First Anniversary – Thank You!

I’ve recently been enjoying (if that’s the right word) a brief unexpected hiatus in my blogging, thanks to a technical fault which has now been resolved. Hopefully, the things I’ve been reading and thinking about in the intervening period will end up inspiring future posts.

I don’t have anything much to say right now – there are a few posts in draft, waiting to be tidied up for publication – but yesterday was this blog’s first anniversary, which seems an appropriate occasion to express my thanks to you, the reader. When I started blogging, it was primarily a way of arranging my own thoughts, and I had no idea where I was going with it. But without an audience, it would be hard to keep it up for any length of time.