You

“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together”.
– John Lennon

I’ve noticed that my daily blog posts cover quite a range of tone, from serious to comic to lyrical to slightly nutty to rather more than slightly nutty. At first I was not sure about the cause of this variety. But recently I think I’ve started to figure it out.

My theory is that each post I write has an intended reader, although I am not always aware at first who that reader is. Not a group of readers, but one particular reader. Not necessarily a person who will actually read the post, nor even necessarily a person who is alive on this planet at the moment, but always some specific individual with whom I have some sort of emotionally generative relationship.

The process feels a bit like one-on-one storytelling. I picture you in my mind, and I talk to you. You might be grown-up or child, male or female, living or dead, someone I talk with every day or someone with whom I ceased all communication years ago. Often you are an old friend, and often you are a specific person I met two days ago, with whom I had a fascinating conversation over dinner.

This makes sense on a teleological level. After all, a blog is in some ways the direct opposite of a diary. A diary is essentially a wall of privacy – a safe means by which to say things to yourself that you would not say to others.

In contrast, a blog is by definition a public document. There are walls here to be sure, but they are more subtle – they are walls built of differential expected knowledge, of privileged prior information. Just as it is possible to make a public speech that is truly understood by only one person within a crowd of ten thousand listeners, blogging has a quality of hiding in plain sight.

The resulting stream of words and ideas might fade in and out of a state of mystery for various readers from day to day. One day a particular reader might recognize an experience we have shared, or a fondly recollected private joke. At other times that same reader might find themselves nonplussed, while another nods knowingly.

After all, writing is an activity that appears to belong to one person, but in actuality belongs to at least two – the writer and the intended reader. The tension between these two – giver and receiver – creates an energy that is felt by all readers.

Today, as usual, I am writing with a specific reader in my mind. Although you might not realize I’m writing for you, and you might not even read this, I’d just like to say hi.