Do you think blogging is abnormal? Do you think it will stop people from having face-to-face conversations? Do you think it is voyeurism? I met a friend today for coffee and mentioned this blog and she felt that blogging was making the world a less social place, a more foreign place, a less personal place. To her blogging was the end of conversation as we know it. I thought about what she was saying. I thought about how in a blog one often shares a lot more than cursory comments and that in a way, this was allowing people to stare into my world whether they knew me personally or not. But then I thought about how much I had gained from reading other peoples blogs, how readily I identified with some of what they were saying and the emotions they were feeling. I have learnt so much from other people and although they are strangers they feel like friends because they gave of themselves and I grew in the process. Of course I admit to a bit of a conscious bias to the positive and that there are some blogs that communicate a blatantly distorted world view, that are written in support of prejudice, injustice and indifference but they do not need to find in me a receptive eye or a receptive heart unless I let them. Surely though it is better for us to employ these new communication mediums to turn our thoughts into words into actions to make more friends of strangers, to recognise in the other ourselves?

“To me thou art not a stranger, but a friend; thou art not unknown, but known.” Abdul'Baha