With the start of the New Year, I’ve gotten back some of my writing mojo and am back in the habit of putting up at least one blog post a day. Coming up with writing material has been somewhat easy since I’m participating in two MOOCs right now, yet there always is that struggle of what to write. If I don’t have something compelling, or enough energy, should I skip the blog post? Keeping the discipline of daily writing, perhaps, brings the most benefit on those days when it is hardest to write.

This week has been very busy, and there are many topics I would love to explore in depth, when I have more time, but for this evening, I want to reflect on a post a friend put on Facebook:

I keep trying to blog, but now, with a heightened sense of everything being public all the time, it's not as easy as it was before.

After Charlie Hebdo and Raif Badawi, after Ferguson and Eric Garner, we see speech becoming more and more divisive and for some, more and more dangerous. No, it isn’t as easy any more, but perhaps it is more and more important.

The question becomes, are you saying something new, insightful, important, or are you just echoing talking points of your political orientation?

Sometimes, it is neither. Sometimes, it is just the discipline of daily writing, and there’s value to that as well.