Apology In Response to Eatbees

eatbees blog � Foreign Aristocrat

"What am I doing writing about Morocco anyway?"

Eatbees asked himself this pointed question in 2004 and continues t ask it today. It is a question I ask myself regularly.

What am I doing writing about Morocco anyway? A country where I lived once, but to which I have not returned for many years. The sheer presumptuousness is breathtaking.

"None but a blockhead would write except for money," said Samuel Johnson. Yet here I write, day after day, for no compensation except my own amusement. (Or vanity? as Eatbees asks.)

A superficial response is the typical blogger's retort: "It's my blog, and I can write what I d**n well please. If you do not like it, read something else." Ultimately, not a very satisfying answer.

More to the point, I think, is that a blog is a way to discipline myself to learn more about something that I am interested in, and hopefully to share a little bit of what I learn. I really do not pretend to be an authority, but I also think that I have learned something more with each entry I post, and with each response I get. I am thankful for the people I have met or spoken with through my blog who are more knowledgeable than I. (You know who you are!)

Eatbees asks in what coin we pay for our ringside seat at the Moroccan spectacle. I think the most genuine coin is interest, love, and respect. I hope that my blog, however inadequately, reflects those values. However privileged my position as an American has been vis a vis Morocco, I have been too often humbled to take it for granted.