What's the Point?

I had a great reason for starting this blog back in 2004 - to keep my friends and family up to date on what I was doing in Bangladesh. I became addicted to blogging, and continued to post even after I came home. I've made lots of new friends and maybe connected with some long-lost buddies because of this blog.

But I often wonder, what is the point? Do I have a theme? I seem to complain a lot about different things. Sometimes I try to write little op-eds about current affairs and important issues.

Note: Today I was going to post about the discourse regarding Barak Obama running for president. (A NYT article for which I can't find the link talks about how many African Americans don't think he's "black enough", and some political leader actually said that he's the first "clean" African American to run, and some people don't think he's American because his father was from Kenya!!!) I wanted to talk about how the whole point is that we should elect a leader for their abilities to LEAD, not because of what they look like. That's what it means to BREAK DOWN BARRIERS!! But I decided to spare you.

Anyway, there are plenty of other bloggers who have taken up this subject, and dealt with it much more eloquently than I ever could, so go read their blogs.

So then I wonder, should I make my blog into one of those "current links" blogs (like Rezwan's excellent blog about Bangladesh), but nah, that's been done too.

Wendell's got a Critter-themed blog. Gina's got the whole "domestic nemesis" angle. Tanya's blog is just hilarious and witty all the time. Then there are the legends: Twisty and Bitch - they don't even need a theme, that's how good they are. So what am I left with? I'm too ADD to stick to one thing!

I worry that nobody really cares what I had for lunch yesterday, or what I did last weekend, or how cute my kid is. Note: He's the cutest first grader in the WORLD. Things would be much more interesting here if I could tell all my secrets - if only I could be sure that my professors/friends/family/boss/etc. wouldn't read on certain days... I've considered making an anonymous blog, but I'm just too lazy to start over. Plus, I kinda like it when my friends visit my blog and make comments. I crave attention.

And another thing: I've had three people make repeated comments to me about how this seems like a big waste of my precious time. Is it that these people don't understand what a blog is? Do they think that I spend hours formulating each post? Or is it really a waste of time?

So what's an aimless blogger to do? Suggestions?