Why Does Anyone Do Anything?

Illustration by Gordon Studer

I got an email from a friend today saying he was confused--he thought I had said that I wasn't going to write this blog anymore, and here it was again, and what the heck is going on? Here's the thing: writing a blog is sort of like doing nothing. It doesn't make me any money and it doesn't cost me any money. People don't leave comments, so there's no give and take with an audience. And while I do hear from a couple of people every so often, and I appreciate those people very much, aside from Tedinski and David, and an occasional peep from Mel or Diane, it's a black hole out there.

I still don't know why I do it, but why does anyone do anything? Old habits die hard, which would explain why Shakespeare wrote the same play over and over, only with different characters dying from different causes. If I stop writing this blog, then I've got nothing, whereas if I continue writing this blog, I've got this blog I write. And I can say and do whatever I want, and it's just about the only place where that is true. So it matters not if anyone reads it--my life doesn't change either way. (That's the worst part. The best part is that I get to read it, and sometimes I find a typo to fix, and that's always fun.) And I can do things like right in the middle of it say, "Paul is dead now," or whatever the heck I want, and nobody can stop me. And I get to show off my friend Gordon's illustrations, which are awesome. For that alone you should thank me.