I AM, THEREFORE, I BLOG!!!

From "blog surfing", I have discovered that there is a service that actually rates blogs and one that rates black blogs. I have read the writings of different bloggers lamenting that they didn't crack the top twenty-five, the top ten, or what have you. I myself am not worried about cracking anything. I'm pretty sure that I am way under the radar, considering this is such a new blog (it's only seven months old).

What makes me sad is that, in America and western society in general, everything is built on competition and eventually, profit. People fail to understand that when those two elements get in the mix, all of the fun, beauty, and creativity of anything goes flying out of the window.

I have always taken a pencil or a pen and put my thoughts down on paper. I have done this for as long as I can remember. This is something I just do, without thinking of profit. I do it because writing is therapy for me... it's relaxing and it's fun. I do plan to be published one day but, whether I am or not has nothing to do with whether I will continue to write. I will always do that.

When my wife came to me with the idea of doing a blog myself, I was hesitant at first but, after actually seeing a few blogs, I decided to give it a go and gradually we created something that I can say I'm proud of. I will admit that in the past few months, I have become a shameless "comment whore", to borrow a term from my sister blogger, "O.G."... but, like her, I have "found Jesus" and I have my head on straight now. I know what's really important.

I have looked at a lot of blogs and I must admit that I have my favorites which continue to inspire me (most of them are listed and linked on this blog, if you scroll down the sidebar). There's the raw, naked, and passionate honesty of "Chicago Zack"; the creativity and brilliance of "Mizrepresent"; the jazzy fluid writings of "O.G.-The Original Glamazon"; and the usually on-point political commentary of "The Field Negro" and "Hodari P.T. Brown". These are blogs that keep me on my toes and constantly inspire me to step up my game (which I haven't done yet... I got a long way to go before I get to their level but, half the fun is aspiring and trying to get there).

I would hate to find myself in any kind of competition with them for blog of the year or what have you. Rating blogs to me is as silly as rating a "My Space" page or an email address. I want to continue to have fun, to write on my own terms, and not be bound to any formal criteria or standards that are not my own. So, while I want to be "popular" and read, I don't care if I ever crack the top twenty-five or top ten of any formal blog rating system. If I can express myself, inform, and perhaps make someone smile after reading one of my posts, then I have done what I set out to do when I started this blog.

I'd also like to take this time to shout out some of my new blog friends:

"Dreamy", "Keisha 'Kitten' Isaacs", "EB, the Celeb" (a true renaissance woman), Zack Kirk, my little sis "Shanita Waters", and Torrance "The Raw Dawg Buffalo" Stephens.

May we continue to be original and creative voices of the new blogosphere!!!