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Today, as I was checking out the two dozen or so blogs I read regularly these days (and thinking again how I need to get some link love going on my site), I had this conversation with myself. It was rapid-fire, the way  conversations in your head can be.

Me 1: I love how much I learn about myself when I'm reading other people's blogs.

Me 2: Nice. So everyone else's blogs are all about you, too?

Me 1: That's not what I mean!

Me 2: But that's what it sounds like, so don't bring it up. People will get the wrong idea.

I thought about it some more, though, and decided this: I hope my blog is all about all of <em>you</em>. Sure, I write about myself a lot, because those are the stories I know best. But I hope those stories help you think about your own life in different ways. That's what first-person writing is all about. Let's be honest—you aren't reading my blog because you really want to know everything about <em>me</em>. How dull. No, you're hoping you might find out something about yourself. Reading personal narratives is like going to the therapist, but free, and you don't have to worry about parking.

So with that in mind, I'm going to share with you a few things I learned about myself, thanks to a few others.

<strong>Lesson 1: I need to stop blaming the people around me and focus on creating the world I want. </strong>
I was reading <a href="http://www.magpie-girl.com/20081015/sacred-spaces-to-all-the-gods/">this post by Magpie Girl</a> yesterday, and it gave me an opportunity to ask myself, What Would Kristin Do? In the post, Magpie Girl writes about recently visiting the Pantheon in Rome, which was filled with noisy tourists. Even when a choir began filling the awesome space with Gregorian chants, the people kept jabbering away. So WWKD? I would sit there and simmer angrily, glaring at people and wondering how they could be so resistant to quiet moments of wonder and awe. In other words, I would allow the world around me to dictate the kind of experience I was going to have. Not cool. It's something  I need to work on. (In case you're wondering, that's not how Magpie Girl responded.)

<strong>Lesson 2: I need to laugh more and clench my teeth less.</strong>
Sure, times are stressful. There's a lot to worry about, as both presidential candidates reminded us several times in last night's debate. But times full of worry don't call for <em>less</em> laughter, they call for <em>more</em>. We don't need to give Worry the same respect we give Death at a funeral. Sometimes we need to laugh in its face. It was <a href="http://belz.wordpress.com/">the blog of my poet friend Aaron Belz</a> that reminded me of this today. He's amazingly thoughtful <em>and</em> funny, proving that poetry can be both. Life can be, too. (Make sure you scroll down enough to read all three of his most recent poems: "<a href="http://belz.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/pennies/">pennies</a>," "<a href="http://belz.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/beard/">beard, beard</a>," and "<a href="http://belz.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/debate-results/">debate results</a>," which had me laughing into my computer enough that people at the cafe were looking.)

<strong>Lesson 3: I need to keep learning, but also engage in the conversation <em>now</em>, even before I get it all figured out.</strong>
Because the figuring it all out part isn't going to happen. I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago in  <a href="http://www.halfwaytonormal.com/?p=85">Post-polite post on digging deeper</a>, and I was inspired to ponder it again from a slightly different angle when I read <a href="http://dagsempire.blogspot.com/2008/10/kitchen-is-sort-of-closed.html">this post on Dagny's Empire</a>. It really isn't a post about full freezers as much as it's a post about White Privilege, and how most people just don't get that concept. What I learned from Dagny is that, well, I've got a lot more to learn about many of the topics I like to think and blog about. I need to read as much as I can. But she also affirmed this: Achieving change requires open dialogue. And we can't wait until we have it all figured out to have those conversations. That's like waiting until you have life figured out to have children—a sure strategy for negative population growth.

Anyway, thanks Magpie Girl, Aaron, and Dagny, for helping me learn some important things about myself. I hope I can return the favor here, from time to time.