#330daysofbiking Day 106: leave no trace

Decided to ride this morning, rather than swim.  Mason had initially planned on going with me, but ultimately he opted out after thinking about how many hours he would be spending out in the heat and sun – lifeguarding at the Y later in the day.  Can’t say I blame him, it was a beautiful day, but another hot one.

So I set out on my own, a rather convoluted route, combining a couple of my favorite roads along the river, and a couple of new ones.  Gave me a chance to think about some things that have been on my mind – especially the direction of this blog, what I’m doing with this whole project, where I want to go.

My very dear cycling friend (who I will refer to as @blueallez, as he is known on twitter) had sent me this cartoon from XKCD … which rang so true (and made me laugh).

XKCD: Bored with the Internet

The truth is, I have been having a debate with myself over the past few weeks.  While I am loving the riding of #330daysofbiking, I’m becoming increasingly uncomfortable, personally, with the posts.

The advent of the blogopshere has been a blessing and a curse.  There is definitely a great value in many blogs, especially the ones that have a clearly defined objective – from promoting/reviewing products, to presenting opinion or topic news, or valuable advocacy of a cause or mission.

But at the same time, I find far too many of them to be dull, uninteresting, and often self-aggrandizing personal diaries – a fair number of “posers” and attention-seekers, in my opinion, saying a whole lot of nothing.  Maybe it’s a necessary niche (I’m sure for places like WordPress, anyway), but it’s one I have never wanted to fit into … and increasingly, I am feeling more and more uncomfortable, fearing I am sliding into that category.

The fact is, #330daysofbiking is a purely personal goal; I have no goals to make or raise money – for myself or a “cause”, I have no interest in sponsorship or anything similar. I don’t need the validation – from readership numbers or other measure.  Just because I am trying to ride every day doesn’t mean I need to publicly broadcast my “vacation photos” and the mundane details with the cyberworld.   I have debated whether or not this qualifies as legitimate (or measurable) advocacy, and have decided it doesn’t.

Mostly, I just want to do – much more than telling (showing, writing) about doing.

I simply want to ride my bike, take some pictures – and the details really don’t matter in the scheme of things.  Except to me.  And that’s where they should ultimately stay.

So, I’m not sure where I will go from here.  It is something I need to figure out for myself.  For the record, I will keep the blog.  And #330daysofbiking will continue – for me.  But I’m uncertain as to the direction of my posting.  I’d like it to have more of a purpose and less trivial drivel – there is already an overabundance of that in the blogosphere.  When I feel like I have something legitimate to say, an opinion or idea to express, I will be posting.  Otherwise – well, I’d rather “leave no trace” than leave a cybertrail of simply “stupid”.

For today, then – the leftover “vacation photos” from the day. 😉

thinking...

open house