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OK, I guess I'll have to explain it to you.

I've been reading the Mrs. du Toit Weblog for some time. She doesn't post every day, but when she does, it's worth the wait.

Recently, she wrote a message that I needed to hear. It has to do with why many of us feel the need to post our thoughts and opinions. It also has to do with the need to speak the truth - no matter who gets offended.

I'm pretty much like most bloggers. I have a few readers, but I'd like to reach a few more. Briefly, I was a part of the team that blogged on Right We Are!, which is no longer in existence. It was hard to re-group after Maripat pulled the plug, although I respected her decision.

But the Mrs. really put my, and other's, efforts into perspective. Sure, it would be good for the ego to have a large audience (like the popular Lileks, whose Daily Bleat is widely read). But that's not likely.

So, why do I blog?

Sometimes, I think it's like the man on the street corner who preached every day, seldom getting anyone interested enough to stop and listen. He was told, "Nobody's listening, why do you bother?" He replied, "At first, I did it for everyone else. But they didn't care. Now, I do it for me. So that I won't become like them".

To a certain extent, I blog for me. It provides an escape hatch for my more pointed viewpoints. It let me get stuff off my chest.

But, it also focuses my attention on the things I write about. I spend a little more time digging into the facts behind an issue. I read more widely. And I spend more time thinking about these issues, and eventually forming my own opinions.

All of those reasons are part of my rationale.