Bloggity-blog-blog-blog!: Part Two

   In my most recent blog, I talked a little about "Neanderings"and its interaction with its readers, how they arrive at the blog and how spread all over the world they seem to be.
   I talked about how occasionally people arrive at the blog simply by doing (generally) Google searches. I even gave a weird example of a phrase that someone typed in.
   Every so often, though, someone arrives at "Neanderings" by typing in a question relating to some pressing and serious issue facing them.
   One person typed in "how to say goodbye to your child moving out". Doing this took her to a blog I wrote called "Saying Goodbye". I wrote this blog in response to a request by my sister, Jayne, who at the time was facing the prospect of one of her sons heading back out west. I guess she thought it might make a good topic and at the time I was looking for something to write about. Now, I haven't the slightest idea whether the blog was at all helpful to either Jayne or anybody else who might have read it. It is kind of like trying to find the right words to say to a person who's just had someone in the family pass away--nothing seems really too appropriate or helpful.
   Now, however, there was a total stranger out there in the world who wanted advice on something. In attempting to seek out this advice, they had ended up on that particular blog. I have no idea whether they took one look and got the hell out or whether they sat and read the whole thing through and appraised the value of the advice. Following that, I have no idea whether they found any of the advice at all helpful.
   The scary part for me is that I never really thought of "Neanderings" as anywhere a person might go looking for advice, of all things. I always tend to think of it as somewhere for me to indulge my own flights of fancy, jumping all over the place in almost a stream of consciousness manner. While it occurred to me that the things I would say might be judged, I never thought they might be considered as authoritative in any way shape or form!

   Okay, here's something even scarier. Twice, someone arrived at "Neanderings" by going to Google and typing in "corporal punishment on the bare". Now, I'm assuming the person meant to add the word "bum" or "bottom" or "buttocks" to that sentence but Google came up with something before they had the chance. Typing in this phrase took them to a blog I wrote called "Corporal Punishment". In it, I briefly mentioned once when I spanked one of my kids on his bare bottom. I then went on to talk about the perils of different forms of punishment and/or reinforcement. The gist of the blog was that it was better to talk to your kids than hit them, but that you needed to talk to them in the right way or you could do just as much damage. The scary part is that here was another stranger wanting advice or an opinion on something as serious as corporal punishment and part of that decision-making process took them to "Neanderings"! I truly had never counted on things like this happening and it has forced me to intently consider the things I write here. The fact that I always kind of try and do that anyway now almost seems secondary.
   Anyone can do a blog. You don't have to be smart, authoritative, good with the language, funny, wise or even know what you're talking about. You only need to be able to type. Sort of. Your blog can look like crap and still contain wonderful things or it can be all fancy, glossy and slick and yet be meaningless. Hopefully, as readers are flitting about from blog to blog they are discerning enough to realize the things they are reading are really only opinions, observations, musings, rantings and ravings. In the middle of all that if you find anything that rings true then file it away for future reference.