Rebecca Blood: A Blogger with Compassion

compassion - n 1: a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering [syn: compassionateness] 2: the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it - www.dictionary.com

The day is cold. It’s almost winter. My lazy-gene kicked in, so I just stayed home doing what I do best—snuggle in a comforter and read my latest book.

My career is in the IT industry, but I’m fairly new to blogging. I didn’t have the nerve to write and publish my musings on the Internet until a few months ago. And I never took blogging seriously until last month. I consider myself a technical dude with a good grasp of Web technology and latest IT mania. But I admit I was late in recognizing the potential of blogging as an art form. Shame, shame, shame. So I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening reading Rebecca Blood’s The Weblog Handbook. I learned everything I need to know about “blogging with compassion” in one sitting.

Reading Rebecca’s book was an eye opener. Finally, a blogger who understands what compassion means. Her advice on blogging is what I’ve envisioned to do with my blogging—
- to be a “better writer”
- to expand “self-awareness”
- to be a “Critical Thinker”
- to use blogging superpowers “for good”
- and to link with kindred souls

Rebecca didn’t use integral jargon. I’m not sure whether she’s aware of Integral Theory or not, but I don’t care. She laid out the foundation on ethical blogging which should be adhered to by bloggers—integral, or otherwise. She inspired me to write an essay about my own mantra—“integral blogging with passion and compassion”—which I need to get off my chest real soon before the insights fade from my neurons.

The Weblog Handbook is not a technical manual for bloggers. It is a guide on how to blog with compassion. If you are new to blogging and want to pursue it for self-expression, then checkout The Weblog Handbook. You could learn the technical stuff later—those are easy.

Rebecca Blood’s The Weblog Handbook is to blogging, as Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down The Bones is to writing. There. Thanks Rebecca. Take care and stay lucid.