Why am I here?

Since I went in and changed the appearance of my blog I have not posted because I did not know how to use it. Today I decided to go to blogger.com hoping to find help. Instead of finding a help desk or frequently asked questions or anything, I found the menu here and a way to post again. I'm glad about that. I still don't know how to navigate this site, but maybe I will learn. I am glad to be here again, although I'm not sure why. Starting to blog without having the slightest bit of marketing savvy seems kind of pointless. From my first days of blogging about a decade ago, I have only gotten a couple of comments. And never more than 12 people have read my posts. So, why do I do it? Well, like the new name of my blog, Sound Off, I guess I'm thinking this may be a good place to sound off, even if nobody ever reads what I write. It will always be out there in the Worldwide Web, even after I am dead. If any of it reaches anybody or helps anybody, I guess that's good, and if not, at least it was an outlet for me. I am actually finding myself at a place of frustration in my life right now. Facebook has been fun but pretty superficial. The worst part of Facebook, too, is the fact that people get snippy. At least in a blog there is perhaps less opportunity for starting arguments. I don't know this for a fact because, as I said, hardly anyone ever reads this blog. In the book The Right to Write by Julia Cameron I just read that the evidence that people want to write is the existence and popularity of text messaging. I never thought of it that way, but yeah... why is this considered a superior form of communication than, say, calling someone on the phone? I suppose the best thing about text messaging is that the person who receives the text has a choice about when to respond to the text, whereas if you pick up the phone you kind of have to talk right then. I am trying to complain less and be less negative. Truthful doesn't have to be negative. People want to look on the bright side of things, not the dark side of things. Well, I can't say that is true for everyone. I know someone who is never positive about anything. In fact, I think it's a miracle this poor soul is still alive at all, he is so miserable. I see this as evidence of God's grace, but you don't really want to mention deity around this person. I think this negative person is an example of one of those people who has been inoculated against the Christian faith. I mean I think he has been baptized as a child, raised in church, but is now completely dead to the things of God. He's bitter, angry, sad, gloomy, depressed, you name it. Nothing I say seems to have an impact. And yet I still hear from him occasionally. Always the same. He's miserable. Life is so hard. Living in the beautiful Smokey Mountains of Tennessee and has everything going for him but he refuses to see it. Because he's alone. Well, him and millions of other people in the world. A person gets tired of trying to help somebody after a while. I have written him letters. He has written me letters. But they're always depressing. I have gotten to the point that I can't really do anything else. We've been friends for 20 years and he never gets any better. I don't know what else to do or say. Well, this seems like an odd place to stop but I want to check out some other things on the blog, like see if I can find where I check to see who has read any of my posts. And I may give somebody the link, in case they might want to read some of the things I've blogged about for 10 years or so. I do believe we are here for a reason. Jesus said we were the light of the world and the salt of the earth and that we should shine our light, so here I am trying to do that.