The Big and The Small

We happened to check in at Firedoglake on Sunday afternoon and found an amazing conversation among the FDL crew and commenters with Keith Olbermann, Joe Wilson (who showed up at FDL unexpectedly), and Mike Stark (who was roughed up at a George Allen political appearance). It was delightful to find Mr. Olbermann responding so thoughtfully to comments and Joe Wilson talking about what our role is as citizens of our country. Imagine reading comments and finding one like this from Joe Wilson:

All I did was what Americans do every day, challenge my government on its shit. It would have been a three day story except for the reaction of the administration and its subsequent actions. Orwell once wrote: “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” We should see this in that context– the universal deceit foisted on the country by these clowns. I hope we can turn them back on Tuesday. If there is a lesson from our experience it is that one can survive and indeed thrive in opposition to our government. Our goal is to put the fear of the people back into the government and take fear of the government out of our society.

It was quite compelling to find live-in-time blogging about some of the most important issues confronting our country with comments and contributions by people who actually have a voice in the bigger conversation.

It made me think about blogging, and what the big blogs contribute to the political discourse of our country.

Pond in rain

But it also made me think about the smaller blogs and feel such gratitude for their holding down the fort, our earth, during these battles. For doing the work, planting the gardens, keeping our eyes on the water levels and quality, checking in on the forests and the oceans, the quality of food we eat, the economy and health care, and the animals we share the planet with. And I love the blogs of poets, fiction writers, parents, dreamers. There is a groundedness in the conversations we share, a bread and butter account of life on earth, and the best of the creative voices provide a flourish of beauty and astonishing insight. I find an "we're all in this together" attitude no matter what the blog's particular style.

Pond in sunset

It occurred to me that there is a stunning and important contribution we can all choose to make to the big conversation. Sometimes, quite frankly, blogging seems crazy, silly, pointless, meaningless, and absurd to me. But it could also be that all of our voices together have the profound weight and possibility of changing the world.

Illusion of ocean in sky

And really, there's nothing wrong with that.

So, let's go change the world.