In all seriousness: I have been routinely delighted to learn
now and then that anyone is reading
these posts. Indeed, one of the most rewarding by-products of this enterprise
is the occasional unexpected connection it sparks across cyberspace. Among my
favorites was hearing from a metallurgist who served as an expert witness in a heartbreaking
personal injury case in which I participated a number of years back. I had not
had direct contact with this individual since that case wrapped up but learned,
because of this blawg, that he is a Shakespeare fan who has performed in
several productions.
Sure, for some blawgers, blawgging may prove a gateway to
that seductive “15 minutes.” But most blawggers (and bloggers), like most
lawyers, routinely write for a very circumscribed audience. Therefore, the
writing has to be about something other than the pursuit of recognition. For
me, writing is an activity that demands commitment to greater clarity; it is
about building bridges outside of one’s own head where the engineering is
exposed, and thus one cannot settle for vague connections and unsupported level
jumps. Writing is also, as Shakespeare understood, a means to thumb one’s nose
at mortality. Writing at least has the potential to defy death. Therefore, even
the act of writing to no one
expresses some confidence in the potential to survive physical death, to
outsmart time—that great equivocator.
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 18
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