for whom the writer writes

• I am writing largely for myself, perchance others

• I am writing because I am a writer, it is a driven thing.

• I am writing in my head, as we travel, as we walk or talk or look. 

• I could become virtuous and say I'm writing because otherwise travel would be a weird ride round the world seated disinfected on the top deck of a Turibus.

• I am writing for meaning. I am not much good at sitting in the sun and taking in sunscreen or even words in books. 

• Words in books as much or more than sights of creatures and things drive me to thoughts and the need to learn more and express them, in some form of writing.

• Writing need not be with words but begins with the evolution into meaning of aha-s, images, smells, tastes, sounds, emotions, encounters, the expected and unexpected, the delights, the shocks. 

• The writing arises from the formation of thoughts and the desire not to lose those thoughts. 

I blog because it seems a magical way of presenting ideas and it agreeably accommodates habits acquired when in the foreign service of assembling a relatively brief report quickly, with policy content (explanation of situations, insights, background, meaning, recommendations) and firing it off into a void, round the world, up someone's nostril, to give their brain at least a little hiccup: "Oh god, what's he saying this time?"

That's almost admitting the truth: that sitting and writing a doctoral thesis would not only cause disagreeable happenings to my lower digestive tract, but is also not remotely possible given that I have to punch out the episode and move on.

If you blog you can find out who may be looking. In this chart, please note that I have asked Ms Google not to count my own looking into my own blog. This chart at 0530 9 June 2015, Mexico City Time.

And if you are really lucky and a little honest you may find out who you are yourself.

I don't know how that can be done honestly with tiny tweetlet utterances. I find it a huge distance both ways, I am resolutely in the middle: from bloggeration up to dissertation, from bloggeration down to the social media mutteration.

Oh how my audience would grow if only I had a social media platform!  But when would there be mindspace to blog?