Starting at the Beginning

Welcome to Write of Hand!

Before we start I want to be very clear: I have no idea what I'm doing with this blog. After all, it's no longer 2010 so I don't even know if people still use these. That isn't really the point though. Two of my favorite activities (often times pulling double duty as my least favorite activities) are thinking, and writing. Every once in a long while, I do both of them at the same time only to find that I have no outlet for them. I mean, I suppose I could become one of those people who spills their inner most thoughts and desires on to social media, airing their dirty laundry for all the world to see. Plenty of people do it, and I don't begrudge them that. In a way, I kind of even respect them for it. But my own feelings about social media can be aptly, if flippantly, summed up by one of my favorite Doctor Who quotes:

Doctor: "Imagine that. Human souls trapped like flies in the world-wide web. Stuck forever, crying out for help." 

Clara: "Isn't that basically Twitter?" 

Given that, it seemed that my options were to either bottle it up like I have for most of my sentient life, or I could become a good little product of the digital age and finally make a blog. I suppose there is an argument to be made that blogging about my thoughts and feelings isn't so different from doing so on social media. The key difference for me is that I'm making this blog primarily for me, so that every so often I can post my late-night musings, feel somewhat gratified, then later re-read it and feel stupid and embarrassed for having done so. If somehow what I write resonates with others who come to it, that's fantastic. I will always promote forming connections with other people. It's what our existence is all about, and one of the most important parts of my life...

You know, what? I take it back. That is what this blog is for. It's about reaching out and connecting. Sharing my experiences, in the hope that they might help someone somewhere feel less alone. Trying to pretend that it isn't important to me to receive feedback for the thoughts that I put out into the world is just disingenuous, and only the result of me trying not to establish myself as egotistical. Is it an act of an inflated sense of self-importance to decide that the thoughts you have and subsequently choose to write down deserve to be heard and experienced by all living souls far and wide? That you must then build yourself a metaphorical mountain top from which to shout them incessantly until the ravages of time, criticism, and boredom take their toll? Well...yeah, it probably is. But that's not what I want to do here. This blog is just as much a symbol of defiance against that not-so-little voice in my head that tells me that I don't matter. The voice that tells me nobody cares about or wants to hear anything that I say, do, or create. The voice that loudly proclaims that my life will be defined by my failures.

Fuck that voice. I matter, you matter, and we are none of us alone. I made this blog to distract myself into a lasting, positive head space. I made it to draw attention away from the toxic cynicism that seems so pervasive in online and offline spaces. As Satine Phoenix, one of my favorite online content creators likes to say, we are all in this together. So, join me, talk with me, create with me, learn with me, teach me, laugh with me. Let's pull one over on that not-so-little voice and rob it of its power. Welcome to Write of hand.