Blogger Badges

In my ecstacy about being featured on DC Blogs, I was talking to a veteran Blogger and I mentioned that this was like getting a superior merit badge as a Girl Scout. I wasn't surprised when she told me that she got EVERY badge as a Girl Scout, even the yucky sewing badge. What is it that makes us bask in all forms of recognition? To at least for a brief moment feel superior? This is coming from someone who has said all along that I was writing for myself, and not for an audience. But, guess what, I like to know that someone is reading what I write. I really love getting comments. I hope I can be resolute about not changing the way I write. I once heard Jonathan Foer (author of Everything Is Illuminated) speak. He said the biggest difference between his first and his second books was the fact that the first time he had no audience and the second time he kept finding himself thinking about what people had said about his first book. So what's the next Blogger merit badge?