Blogging is good for the soul

I deeply appreciate that I live in a country where I can express my freedom of opinion in an online global community. I went to India last summer and I was shocked and dismayed at how oppressed the people were, even in supposedly "Westernized" communities. Granted, I did stay in a small village for 65% of my time there, and was mostly around children, as I was working at an orphanage. However, when I did venture into the cities and when I backpacked around I definitely noticed the lack of personal freedom one had.

One thing that stood out to me the most was how much we take for granted in America. When I returned home from India - after a particularly horrendous trip at that - I told everyone "There's nothing wrong with America! This country is perfect!" Sure, it was hyperbolic, but the point is we make a big deal over things that aren't really a big deal. Imagine a life where you were thrown in prison for blogging about your opinion like Motjaba Saminejad did. Imagine a life where you had to use the bathroom in an open sewage stream and eat food covered in flies (like in India). Imagine a life where multi-national corporations raped your land and flooded your well-water with poisons and then sold you back clean drinking water at a 500% mark-up. These atrocities are so minute compared to the massive suffering that so many people go through on a daily basis. Some people don't have the luxury of eating food at all, much less fly-covered food. The principle at work here is, as bad as you've got it, there's always someone who has it worse.

So, why blog? Because you can. Because you have the freedom to call the government on its crap and not die for saying so. Because you live in a country where people say "please" and "thank you." Because you are young and alive and bright and dying to make a difference. So make that difference! Blog your little heart out. Don't worry about people bashing you for what you say. Just appreciate the fact that we all have opinions and we all can express them. Revel in the amazement of personal freedom! Don't worry about your opinion changing in the future. Don't worry about looking back on what you write and feeling foolish. After all, Emerson says, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

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