Why?

Not who, what, when or where – just why?  In the last week I’ve had a few people ask me why I even bother posting here.  Not in a negative “no one reads your crap” sort of way (then again maybe it was meant that way and I am more socially tone def than I thought) but rather in a “aren’t you scared someone (your manager, a parent of one of your kids friends, the “government”) might take exception to something you say” sort of way.
My simple answer is no – no I’m not.  And not because I don’t care what those people think.  Quite the opposite – I do care what they think and if they disagree with me I would like them to respond and tell me so.  If they simply disagree with my view based on their own, that’s interesting to know.  If they disagree with my view based on some facts that they present then that makes me smarter.
I don’t post here because I have it all figured out.  I post because I don’t.  I am trying to figure it all out (or at least the parts that are interesting to me) and when I come across something interesting or form an opinion through logic based on facts, I share it here not to convince anyone of anything, but rather to test it.  To see if I missed anything.  To discover the case where it doesn’t apply. To apologize where I overstepped my bounds and made it personal.
Honesty, though, I don’t get many comments – here, on Facebook or on Twitter.  It happens, but not all that often.  It’s still worth doing though.  Going on the record and having to imagine what some objections might be makes still tests my thinking.  This blog started as a way for me to have a little sandbox to play on the web and for me to work out my own ideas in front of anyone who was interested to read it.  While the topics have changed (and will likely continue to), the basic idea has stayed the same.  So I keep on because it still seems to be working for me – I’m a better writer and a better thinker than I was a few years ago.  That’s why.