Blog Boggled: D as in Dedication Duality

            How dedicated are you to your blog?   What are some of the things in your life to which you are most dedicated?  Typical answers might include spouse, children, family, and friends.  Other answers might be job, house, education, or self-enrichment.  For many God and their faith would be high on the list if not number one.  We can be dedicated to many things.  However, for dedication to work there must be duality.

         Think about the concept of love between spouses.  A mutual concern and caring must be present for the relationship to last.  Even in the coldest, most distant relationships there has to exist some iota of interest even if it is primarily for the purpose of fulfilling one's self-interest.  When this interest is lacking in one or both parties there is no dedication because there is no duality of concern. 

          Or think about your job.  Would you keep going to work if you didn't receive a paycheck or benefits, and nobody cared about you in that workplace?  It's highly improbable that you would.  You would be out the door looking for a new job.

          This goes for every relationship that we have in life-- product/consumer, artist/ fan, teacher/student, or any type of interactive, co-dependent relationship.  Likewise this goes for you and me and our blogs.  We should come to an understanding of why we send our words and pictures into cyberspace to end up in the vast Google storage to be looked at by total strangers.  Why are you doing this?  Ask yourself.

        It is not much different for an author, say, who writes and writes receiving one rejection and the next, until that author finally sees their work in print, and even better receives payment.  The same goes for any artist, craftsman, laborer, or anyone who devotes time and energy into creation.  They may create one thing for themselves, ten things for the people they know, but once they are mass producing the end product will probably be going into the hands of strangers.  We should strive to make our products the highest quality that we can because that product is a reflection of who we are.

         Each blog post doesn't have to a work of genius.  But it should be a reflection of you striving for your personal best.  Your blog should be you meeting a stranger for the first time and trying to create a good impression.  Your blog should be you meeting up with friends or family members and saying this is something good about me that I wanted to share with you.  This is a part of the duality of your dedication to your blog. You give your blog visitor something to make them feel that they were glad they stopped by and you feel satisfied and pleased with a job that was well done.

           And here is the other side of the duality.  In maintaining the blogger relationship, don't forget the Golden Rule of blogging:  Comment upon other blogs as you would have them comment upon yours. Sometimes writing your blog posts takes a lot of time and it's difficult to make comments.  But do the best you can to at least make a few.  I've been trying to look at every post that appears as much as time will allow and I have been amazed and amused, educated and enlightened.  As many of you know who are doing the same, it can get downright addicting.  There is so much talent here and we all want and deserve encouragement from each other. 

          Today I'd like to recognize a few of the younger bloggers who seem to be very dedicated so far:

 Life in My Shoes  -- Makailyn is a high school student who has a really fine outlook on life.  Her posts so far display some wisdom beyond most young people her age and in fact would be helpful to any of us no matter what age.

  All In The Mind of a Belbin  -- One of our participants from Canada who sounds like an absolutely delightful young lady whom I am presuming is still in high school.

Juan Velez Photography  --- Like many other participants, a college student who will be fitting his photoblog efforts into an already busy school schedule.  Some of you may remember the interview with Juan that I featured in Tossing It Out last November.

Unedited --  Jennifer Daiker is a young author from Texas who talks about her writing and her journey.

Methodical Madness - Another busy graduate student who blogs under the mysterious name beautifulcurare.  She's been on the blog roll since the beginning of the challenge, but I had an incorrect address for her.  This is now remedied so if you tried to visit her site before now and couldn't get it, try again and it should work now.  If you haven't tried yet, now's a good time.  She has an interesting and very current outlook on things.

          If you can, stop by these blogs and give them some words of encouragement. 

           And keep up the enthusiasm and the effort that you have been putting into this challenge.  You can do it.  It may start getting tough as the days count down, but push yourself if you need to and let it flow when the inspiration fills you.  As you look ahead, when you get to "K" will you be kaput or a king or when you reach "Q" are you a Queen or a Quitter?  Keep your eyes on the goal which is completion-- the knowledge that you started a challenge and you saw it through successfully to the end.

         You can do it!