What is the Point of Blogs?

A friend of mine recently wrote, "I still think I don't get the concept of blogs but I so enjoy yours." What is the concept of blogs??

Blogs, and blogging, seemed very otherworldly to me a year ago. I knew a few friends of mine wrote them, but I, like my friend, didn't really "get it." But then I started regularly reading Christine's blog. I didn't know her very well then. Suddenly, by reading her blog, I felt so much closer to her. I got to know her cute dogs. I followed her around on her wonderful vacations. And somehow by reading her blog posts, and responding to them, I felt that she morphed from an acquaintance into a friend.

And after visiting a writers' conference in a different capacity than I had before last summer, suddenly I wanted to share about that experience. I didn't want to write a bunch of emails to people. So I started this blog. It began a little tentatively. But then when I went away to Blue Mountain, it was a way to stay in touch, to show everyone where I was and what I was doing. I wanted to be alone, but not that alone.

It's been a wonderful thing so far. Many people say "I don't have time to blog," but I'm finding that the fifteen minutes or so (often less) that it takes to write a post, is a really good warmup to other writing. It's writing. It gets me thinking about things. And I love the comments. I love receiving responses and having other people join in on the conversation. I get to share about things that are meaningful (or interesting, or silly) and people - sometimes people in other parts of the world - make a connection to that.

I now have a blog-meter that tells me not who reads my blogs (I still don't know that) but where they are coming from. In the last few weeks, I've had people reading this blog from Seoul, Toronto, Madrid, Clay Center, Kansas, and Gibson, Tennessee. I think that's really kind of cool.

I think that for the most part, the people who read my blog are other bloggers. This week I sent an email out to various far-flung friends, people I hadn't been in recent touch with, and included a link to this blog. One of my old high school friends not only read it, but started his own blog last night. It was thrilling to see photos of his beautiful kids, to read a poem his son had written, and to share in something that made him cry: Shostakovich.

We're all so busy and overscheduled these days. I don't know if blogging is yet another thing on the to-do list, or an antidote to the rushing about. I think it's a way of stopping for a few minutes, and making a connection.

So, I'm asking all of you: Why do you read blogs? Why do you write one? (if you do) What is the point? What is the concept?