I have this ultimate and rather obscene fantasy. In this fantasy, there’s this one person who digs like mad through my blog archives in the dead of the night– every night, finding pleasure in reading all the words I’ve written before and always in eager anticipation of what I will write about next. Always wondering about what I have to say and clinging to my words and opinions as if her very life depended on it — as if there is no better opinion on earth but mine.

Photo by Laughing Squid

To this person, whatever I write about is worth gold. It doesn’t matter if I fail horribly with my grammar or if what I write about doesn’t even make sense. Because to this nocturnal being, my blog and words are as alive as I am — and that is all that matters. It may not be the most rewarding of human relationships but it’s the next best thing, she thinks.

If I told her ‘so and so’ is the best, she would believe. If I told her ‘this and that’ is a lie, she’d take my word for it. Yes, she’s completely capable of thinking for herself but she chooses to believe me just because she wants to.

I could sell her anything I want to, even the very soul she already has — and she will buy in a heartbeat. With such conviction. Without the slightest reservation. Without questions.

She is that ultimate blog reader. One who sees your blog as no separate entity from you, the blogger. One whose respect for you is intertwined with eternal fascination.

But the bad news is she doesn’t exist.

When I started out with blogging, I started fairly the same way and for fairly the same reasons as others before me did and had. All I wanted was to chronicle my life experiences one day at a time so that one day, I or someone I cared about can recreate that one specific day like a photograph — like a picture, yes, but this time, with words.

I know ‘a picture paints a thousand words’. My blog hopes to do the reverse — to recreate the picture in your mind through a ‘thousand words’. Little did I know that it would require much more effort than I prepared for or that I would end up writing about politics (as if my life as it is isn’t boring enough).

Eventually, as with many things in my life, the blog took a life of its own and chose to go out into the words, unescorted, deep into the night. You can say that it had its expected encounters with wolves, monsters and aliens. While every step was fraught with danger, it’s not without its occasional meetings with friendly animals and there were countless times when it was awakened by serenades from nightingales.

It’s easy for a blog to get lost in the woods. But the problem doesn’t end there.

Most times, the blog takes a reader with it and both of them get lost. That’s where ‘responsible blogging’ comes in, as if on cue, reminding the blogger to look before he leaps because most times, he doesn’t leap alone.

You the blogger reading this, have you ever realized how influential a blogger you’ve become? Yeah sure, you may not be such a hot shot yet but has it ever occurred to you that it’s possible someone from somewhere follows you blindly into the woods every night?

Have you ever thought that each time you come home after an evening of dalliance with your charming post, someone is stuck somewhere deep into the woods? Lost. Or worse, never to be seen again?

It’s really great that you give readers these wonderful distractions otherwise known as insightful articles. Go right ahead and woo them effortlessly like you always do. Take them every night into the woods with you. But when you’ve made your point and before the night is through, please be kind enough to take them back with you. It’s the least you could do in exchange for what they’ve given you — their trust.

Because, remember that ultimate blog reader I told you about?

What if she does exist?

What if she’s GMA? :)

Be careful how you wield that sword. We don’t want anybody to get hurt. Responsible blogging is not just a choice. It should be the only choice.

*** Blog responsibly. Nothing could be easier. ***