Guilt can be good

It's nice to be back to the hospitable Prawfs world, though I have just a twinge of guilt for not jumping into the conversation earlier.  It's only a twinge because I feel that Dan has provided me with a ready-made excuse for not posting given his omission of me from his monthly welcome.  (Akin to "if a tree falls in the forest . . . ," is "If Dan doesn't give you a shout out, are you actually on Prawfs?")  More broadly, though, I think Tim's observation about blawgpologies merits a bit more exploration.  Guilt unquestionably plays a role in blogging.  On every group blog, there is a core group that is motivated, at least in part, by guilt.  When no one is posting, they'll jump in and provide content, even if they don't have much to say.  There is another group that is totally guilt-free, and they may go six months without having anything to say.  I'm not suggesting that the core group is motivated solely by guilt, just that they will feel obligated to maintain the blog's ongoing conversation.  I'm not exactly sure why certain folks feel that sense of responsibility (and corresponding guilt when the shirk the responsibility), and others do not.  It might stem from a sense of ownership of the blog or personal investment in the underlying project.  I do feel a sense of responsibility to post regularly for one of my group blogs (even when I do not have much to say), but not for another.  The role of guilt is not as obvious among the regular contributors on Prawfs because the monthly guests are always there to pick up the slack.   

I do not think guilt is a bad thing in this context.  And I think there is a similar dynamic among law school faculties.  There are some faculty members who feel a twinge of guilt when they do not have anything to send out in a given submission cycle; there are others who are perfectly guilt-free when they do not have anything to send out in a given decade.  It would be a sad scholarly life to be motivated only by guilt, and not by the fact that you enjoy what you're doing or have something worth saying, but guilt can play a healty role at the margins, I think.  Sometimes we need to push past the guilt, such as when I receive the umpteenth desperate plea to judge a moot court practice round.  In general, though, law schools could probably use more faculty members willing to say "Sorry for my long absence from [scholarship], [committee work], [caring about my teaching]."