Why Blog in 2026
I came to Bear ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ by chance.
I was looking for a home for some writing, radio transcripts, and a small profile online displaying some of my published fiction. Because I have no social media presence and I regularly submit work to literary magazines, I thought it was time to step forward a little, to enter the digital world in the most subtle way.
This time, though, I made myself a promise. If I started a blog, I would keep it active.
That promise came from a comment made by one of the guests on one of my tours at the Audain Museum. She was surprised to learn that I had a blog. She was a lot younger than me, and she remarked that the blogs she comes across are almost always outdated and abandoned.
Since The Hour is Blue was launched, I've seen many things happen.
I met a fellow writer recently in the town where I live. She was jogging on the Valley Trail, and I joined her for what became a walk and talk. We both live on a mountain ridge that is home to many bears, and so Bear felt like a fitting name for this platform.
As we walked, we encountered the bear scat that we're so used to seeing in our neighbourhood. In fact, we can call the bears our neighbours. We share the land with them. We learn to keep our distance, keep away all attractants, and respect that they were here before us.
During that conversation, I told her that I'm really happy with my blog because, in a small way, it represents the best of me. At least, I'd like to think so. All of my intellectual pursuits and loves are in one place.
It's a minimalist blog. It doesn't contain many images. Perhaps that's a reflection of my interior. Words are what define this blog. And even now, the spoken word—my radio interviews—is also living in a new form as transcripts, a record of our conversations.
I told my friend that if I were to pass—and eventually we all will—the blog is something I feel I'm leaving behind to those dear to me. They can see on these pages that intellectual side that I nurture with great passion. It's all in one place, and I like that.
It reminds me of when I was coming back from Italy after a medical trip where I needed to seek care outside of my country. I returned home realizing that the bookshelf beside my bed was, in a strange way, a reflection of my interior.
I had lost the ability to read because of a very rare illness, and that bookshelf suddenly became a beacon of hope. Although my home library, with its hundreds, if not a thousand, books, contains many of the works I love, the bookshelf beside my bed is more special. It contains selective works from the writers that I think deserve to sleep with me every night.
On the top two shelves are the many language books of the languages I have studied over the years. There are also a few literary magazines containing my own published stories. As one goes down, one sees those authors, many of whom are no longer with us.
The bookshelf may not be a blog, but if someone wanted to go inside the interior of my mind, it would certainly give them a slice of who I am.
In an interesting way, I feel the blog is evolving into exactly this. It's taking on its own shape as time passes. Unlike a social media profile or a standard website, I feel it's the closest thing to who I am.
I'm very thankful to the founder of this platform, a man named Herman. He kindly exchanged some emails with me when I launched this blog, and I'm happy to see how much his platform has grown. His little Bear slogan makes me feel right at home.
I've been told by some friends that I should try to bring this blog out into a larger digital world. But to be quite honest, I'm happy with it remaining as it is.
Maybe there are others like me who want something simpler: an online presence that captures something of one's essence and interiority.
I'm also content with the idea that someone, a stranger to me, may come across this blog, perhaps by chance, or perhaps because of an interest that aligns with one of mine. Maybe they want to know something about one of the professors I've interviewed on The Hour is Blue. Or maybe they've followed a philosophical thread.
I like the idea that someone may come to this blog and experience a moment of joy. I may never meet them, but it pleases me to know that this possibility exists.
If, in some small way, I can pass on the wisdom of another, that is enough.
And if someone wants to know who Farha Guerrero is, The Hour is Blue is a good starting point.