What does the Dalai Lama’s wisdom have in common with blogging? I ran into this quote from him several times recently, and it was too good to let go: “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” One thing it called to mind—aside from the gut sense that the DL had identified the meaning of life in seventeen words—was a remark that my favorite nutty, always brilliant blogger, Penelope Trunk, wrote about blogging: “Your life is boring. I’m sorry to tell you this. But actually all our lives are boring.” Why, then, does she or anyone else bother to blog? “To give the reader something they want.” It boils down to kindness: “I try to focus on this with every post I write. But in fact, this is advice about how to do anything in your life: Help people as much as you can. Give people what they need, and if you focus on that, the rest will fall into place.”
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