Who is Otter Zen?

Otter Zen started out like all blogs, namely, as an ego trip. Like most blogs, this particular exercise in hubris was met with richly deserved indifference. This indifference peaked in 2013 when its creator and only author also became indifferent, and abandoned it with not so much regret as, well, indifference. Since then, I've realised that Otter Zen's principal value wasn't as a source of revelation, or cultish obsession or even particularly good or interesting writing. It was therapy. I realise that I'm late to the party on this and that human beings have recognised the therapeutic value of writing for aeons, but it underpins my reasons for starting it again and the expectations I have for it. It means I don't expect you to read it. It means I do expect to feel better, or at least relieved for writing it. As before, it's a fundamentally selfish act, only this time there's less ego in it. There's clearly *some* ego in it, because I'm publishing it on the world wide web. The difference is that this time my ego is being held to account. I'm putting this out there so I can't take it back. So I can't lock it away and pretend it didn't happen. This is important because I'm told that I'm a closed book; easy enough to like, very hard to know. I don't want to go my entire life not 'letting people in', or maybe I do. I can't know until I've tried. All or nothing.

Why not start a new blog? Why keep all the detritus of 1000+ posts from a past life? A few reasons - full disclosure, ego, I'm bad at throwing stuff away - but mainly because I like the name and I'm too lazy to set up another blog.

Welcome to Otter Zen.