Circular Forward?

Why do I write?

The question occurred to me this morning as I reviewed articles from the website Art of Manliness. This is a website about thoughtful men's issues and means of thinking new thoughts (some fascinating multi-part series, with very cool old pictures and graphics).

But reading it this morning has made me question why I write, here. Why? Because that website is the sort of thing I think I wanted to do when I originally started this.

To be fair, when I started I had no idea what I was doing. I just decided to start a blog. If you look at the postings year by year, you'll note that nothing really took off until almost 2 years after it was started. And even then, things have sort of migrated over a vast range of topics, sort of an electronic journal of my life's journey over the past 4 years (especially the last 3).

But is this what I really want? Is this what is the most useful and effective?

I wonder (in my heart of hearts) if I spend too much time essentially navel gazing in a guise of "deep philosophical considerations". Yes, I know I don't do it all the time, but I have been reliably informed by readers that they can easily tell what mood I'm in, or when I'm depressed (for the twentieth time).

But (argues the other side of my brain) what if this is the point of the blog? Surely not many do this sort of occasional introspection, and certainly there are enough other kinds of blogs that this may fill the bill for someone.

Which all may be true. But nagging at the back of my mind is this question: am I just writing in circles, or is this really a spiral motion that is leading me up the coiled spring even as I feel I'm revisiting the same areas multiple times?