It's not so bad, it's not so bad....

There's a theory that bloggers blog only when they're stressed, or if things aren't going well in real life.

If you look at a blog as an extension of a journal or a personal diary, it makes sense. People keep journals to put feelings, emotions, events that they feel are important, in words. And the human mind has evolved in such a way that fear and threat evoke a greater response than joy or appreciation. In any case, most of us find the simple joys of life to be fleeting and insignificant in the long run. Whereas the fear and the pain live after their usefulness has vanished (like the evil that men do, in Mark Antony's speech)

It's only natural. How many times have parents evoked the fear of a bogeyman? And even after they grow up, a lot of people are still afraid of the dark (regardless of bogeymen) And how many preteens have a genuine fear of the other sex? Agreed, preteens do tend to gang up in groups of their own sex. And that leads to much awkwardness as they fumble their way in interactions with the other sex. But talk to preteens about cooties or some such, and you've effectively thrown a spanner in their works. And delayed any "normal" interaction considerably.

The point is that as people we are prone to thinking negatively. And we are prone to suggestion. Auto-suggestion, in particular. It's very easy to fall into a trap of saying your life sucks, just because of one minor hitch (I've been guilty of that crime so many times in the past that I've lost count) And bloggers, with their active imagination and their ability to weave words into exquisite tapestries of prose, are all the more susceptible to blue spells. Blue spells that churn up their creativity and bring out bitter, if beautiful, prose.

I know for a fact that some people blog just to get their worries and frustration out into the open. The therapeutic value of such activity is open to debate. Personally, I think that these are trying times that we live in. We really don't need any more bitterness. I just have a small request to anyone who read this. Whenever you're feeling down, bitter, broken, try and force yourself to think happy thoughts. Or recollect pleasant memories. Whatever it takes to get over a bitter spell without any brooding, or resorting to artificial stimulants. Both you and the world will be better for it.