Meme: /meem/ [coined on analogy with `gene' by Richard Dawkins] n. An idea considered as a {replicator}, esp. with the connotation that memes parasitize people into propagating them much as viruses do. Used esp. in the phrase `meme complex' denoting a group of mutually supporting memes that form an organized belief system, such as a religion. This lexicon is an (epidemiological) vector of the `hacker subculture' meme complex; each entry might be considered a meme. However, `meme' is often misused to mean `meme complex'. Use of the term connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool- and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive ideas has superseded biological evolution by selection of hereditary traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons.

From The Hacker's Dictionary of Computer Jargon

My brother first explained memes to me a few years ago in a conversation we were having about how belief systems function like viruses. We were raised in a house infected by the Missouri Synod Lutheran meme. It’s a powerful idea to step back from ideas and view them not as truths, but as contagion - with the silly corollary of the manifold Quizilla memes bouncing around our blogs to illustrate this in the microcosm.

For reasons that are unclear to me in the grand scheme, there’s been a recent rash of “why I blog” posts from lots of people that I read. Most of these people do not read each other’s blogs so I’m puzzled by the reflexive wave that is washing in on the shared unconscious right now. I can only conclude that a cultural meme of why do they/we do that has Asian Flu-d itself into the national discourse at this moment – and I suppose I am about to demonstrate that I have caught it. But before I get into that I thought I’d add a personal wrinkle to the meme: it’s oddly timed.

Jen recently wrote that it had been about a year since she started blogging and I realized that I too have been at this for one ride around the solar system. I looked at the misspelled and un-paragraphed archives and it turns out tomorrow, the 28th of January, is my one-year anniversary as a blogger. So the big meme washes in for me around the time of a personal watermark – synchronicity in action I suppose.

Why do I, or why does anyone, blog? I caught the blogging meme from Jen who caught it from Selina. I’ve spread it to Angela, Beth, Brad, Jason, briefly BJ, Vanessa and Chris (though Chris may have had multiple exposures from Jes, Kat, Fuzzy and others). I didn’t tell anyone I was blogging for some time. I wrote more freely about my current personal life – which I now generally avoid. I used this blog as an outlet for some of that emotion – not to just put it on a shelf in a journal, but to get it out. Somehow blogging then was like taking out the psychic trash and having the wind blow it away.

Since that time I’ve taken down lots of those posts. I didn’t realize initially how easily people who were following the story in the media could find my page. I didn’t have comments as a feature back then and a women in Seattle wrote me a very nice email sharing her sympathy for our family – all of the emails I got then were like that – but it was clear to me that I didn’t want to become part of the story - just another reporter with an inside look at an American tragedy.

In an ongoing way I’ve told other people and myself that I blog to force myself to write everyday, but that’s more a rationalization or a pretension than a reason. I did it and I continue to do it because I enjoy it. Now it’s a kind of therapy and it’s another way to relate to people – to build communities and to maintain communities – friendships and connections. It also wastes a great deal of my time, so as a hobby it certainly comes through on that front. Just think of all the things I could have accomplished while writing this. Ah well, it’s all just grist for the mill – my grist, your mill, thanks for grinding.

p.s.
You can leave any resultant loaves of meme bread in the comment space.