All I Really Need To Know I Learned Through Blogging

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I'm sure most of you are familiar with Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten. I took a little artistic liberty with Fulghum's writings and came to the conclusion that much the same can be said about blogging ...


All That I really Need To Know I've Learned Through Blogging

• Comment equally. Comment on the good, the bad and the ugly. People want to know that you are there even when they aren't where they'd like to be in life.
• Words are powerful. They can bring a smile to a blogger's face, or a tear to their eye. They can be encouraging and helpful, or disparaging and hurtful. Choose your words carefully.
  
• Clean up your own mess. If you falter - if you fail - own up to it, make amends and move forward. Those who truly care will forgive.
• Don't take things that aren't yours. If you see it on another blog, be sure to give credit to the blog from which you came, and let the blogger know. People take great pride in their work.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Make it public if it was a public hurt, private if it was not.
• HNT is good for you. Whether you you play emotionally half-nekkid, physically half-nekkid, of spiritually half-nekkid, it's good to get half-nekkid once in a while.
• Live a balanced blogging life. Don't let blogging become your only interaction with people.
• Take a break. Sometimes it is important to shift focus, just be courteous enough to let your readers know.
• Remember that the blogosphere is very much like the real world. You need to watch out for speeding cars and falling objects.
• Trust is a valuable commodity. Although most bloggers are wonderful people, there are a few snake-oil sales people out there too. Be careful whom (or is it who?) you bargain with!
• Do what you say, and say what you do! On a blog, and in your comments, your word is golden - keep it highly polished.
• There is a person behind the blog. Bloggers are fragile, vulnerable, real people. They have good days and bad days. They put themselves out there for enjoyment and insight, not for abuse and belittling. If you don't like what you see/read, move on - there are many wonderful blogs and bloggers out there - you are bound to find many that you do like!
  

As Fulghum states in his final lines of this essay (modified just a wee bit):

And it is still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the (cyber) world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

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