So Why Are We Doing This?

Why do so many people do this? Why spend valuable time typing words and sending them out into the ether?

We do this, I think, because we have an innate need to connect with others. Whether we're ranting about the latest Astros loss or sharing our most considered opinions on the nature of human consciousness, we "speak" to connect. Would we really take the time to do this if we were sure that no one would ever read what we wrote? I think not, except for those who use their blogs as personal journals. And even then, I think there's a part of us that senses that our words will be read by someone, something, somewhere, in another domain or dimension perhaps. We communicate to connect.

What about you? Why do you do this? What do you most deeply want to happen with the words that you send out? How does it feel when a thought you send out is validated by some response? Doesn't that feel really good on some level, regardless of whether you know the responder or not? How does it feel when your words are challenged or criticized? That feels to me like someone's pulling away from me or shutting a door on me or holding me at a distance, and that doesn't feel good.

It doesn't always even matter if others agree with or validate our words, depending on the degree of emotional attachment we have to the particular words and ideas we expressed. Sometimes we may want others to challenge us or question us, so that we can arrive through that exchange at a deeper degree of truth about whatever it is we're discussing. But what does always matter is that we get a response. What matters is the connection.

So I wonder what would happen if each of us took a moment before writing and remembered that what matters most to us deep down are the connections we form with others. Would that reshape our words in some way? Give it a try...