Guilt wise: Is blogging like parenting?

I have no kids, but I do have this (and this - when WILL Squarespace and its easy Website tool get the attention it so richly deserves?) so ... pardon me if this is old philosophizing, the thoughts are there...

It's the 21st Century version of "do we own or stuff, or does our stuff own us?"

Blogger-style.

Come on, folks, admit it - if you go more than a day or three without updating your little corner of the blogosphere, you can practically hear it wailing at you from every Net-enabled PC: "Feed me!" (Insert basso profundo voice of "Little Shop of Horrors" carnivorous plant here;-)

I have a friend who has taken to actually taking his two days away from work also away from blogging. (I can't blog at work because, well, it just wouldn't be kosher!) And when I go there, and there's nothing new, I try not to "harrumph." Cuz we all deserve, need and want our time away from these infernal PCs (I really DO want something where I can mix the two, and am still debating the cheap notebook vs. Cybook vs. Pepper Pad thoughts.)

Of course, Jake has kids, so he MUST have more important things to do with his days off than blog. But what's my excuse? Laziness? No. Nothing to say? Ask anyone who knows me - that's NOT it.

But just maybe, I want to own my blog rather than the other way around.

It reminds me of what happens in journalism ( and probably every other working situation), where the little day to day stuff just slides into and out of your life like no problem, but the Big Project just sits on your noggin like a Ton O' Guilt, and is harder and harder to avoid, but also harder and harder to make any progress on, because you've made A Very Big Thing out of it, and you CAN'T just whisk that out in an hour or a day, can you?

I keep meaning to join Procrastinators Anonymous but (insert punchline here).

Anyway, one doesn't have to go all Thoreau or Gandhi to realize that the Path of More and More Stuff is inherently dissatisfying. My wife and I, we pray, are turning over a New Leaf and not sliding back into the Pit of Endless Credit.

I'm rambling. I can do this, I own this blog. It does NOT own me. On the other hand, if I want people to read it, I have to make a point ONCE in a while.

And yes, I've read some things somewhere that talk about how blogging is NOT about the reading but the writing, about putting one's voice and thoughts Out There. But come on, be honest, don't we all cry for a Gold Star on our forehead, a fervent round of applause, a simple "ya done good!" from someone whose views you admire and respect?

So maybe blogging isn't like parenting.

It's just like life. The good, the bad, and hopefully not the ugly.

Religions have been based on less;-)