G.K. Chesterton on Blogs and Bloggs

From the wonderful resource, The Blog of the American Chesterton Society, I found this amazingly prescient statement that rather sums up both the rise and societal necessity of blogs:

"[The blog] exists to insist on the rights of man; on possessions that are of much more political importance than the principle of one man one vote. I am in favour of one man one house, one man one field; nay I have even advanced the paradox of one man one wife. But I am almost tempted to add the more ideal fancy of one man one magazine ... to say that every citizen ought to have a weekly paper of this sort to splash about in ... this kind of scrap book to keep him quiet."

[Ward, GKC 497, quoting GKW April 4, 1925]*

Not that even the great GKC could fully fathom the explosion of the public, international journal:

". . . It is a mystic and refreshing thought that I shall never understand Bloggs."

[Ward, GKC 106, quoting an engagement letter from GKC to Frances Blogg]

Of course, as you may have guessed his "Bloggs" were not some archaic British version of the abbreviated, but at that point uninvented, weblog, but rather his future wife's family. And yet, and yet . . . shall any of us ever understand blogs?

Why do we write and publish our hearts' ponderings in such a public way? And why do so many of us open those most dear of reckonings to the scrutiny of strangers' comments? I guess it goes back to Chesterton's first quote: We want to be heard. And, I would add, it is fun to meet others who have the same quirks of thought and expression as we (though that part of blogging is contrary to Chesterton's ideal -- that's a future post, though).

As the second anniversary of Musings draws nigh, I find myself grateful to Blogger for this opportunity to share the twists and turns of my mind and the discovery that I am really not alone. To my dear blogging buddies: Blog on! Blog as though your very freedom depends upon it, because, to a certain extent, it does.