Chicken soup at your doorstep

I read a blog this week on TheGoodBlogs. I've lost the url now but the story I read hung around for a day or so. The blogger told how he had locked his keys in his house, his saga trying to find his spare at his mothers, finally getting a locksmith, then rushed to a wedding, forgot the directions and then sat in a traffic jam. Yet at the end of it, he laughed at it all. And blogged about it.

For me, this is what the blogosphere is about. The digital chicken soup. Real people telling real stories that let everyone else know, we're all more alike than we realize. That we all have tough times and we can inspire each other. Not with fancy words or political rhetoric. Just a simple story about us.

The best stories that moved me have always been personal. They are not always success stories, but real stories. Mom blogs are the best in that regard. The blogosphere is a great gathering place for moms because often their lives are immersed in their children. They see very little else because they have little time for anything else. But through their blogs, they connect with each other at their own time, in their own way. Conversations can be made between the carpool and making dinner. Tears and laughter are shared willingly and resonate because more often than not, the reader on the other side is a mom.

That is the magic of the Internet.

Somehow we've cheapened that with spam blogs, corporate blogs, blogs with so much advertising you can't find the message. Like small quaint towns that grow into large sprawling cities drowning in smog and billboards. Imagine if no-one could make any money from their blogs, we would probably remove 99% of all the digital trash. And the last 1% would be pure honey. Real stories from real people... As John Lennon once sang, "Imagine.."