Monday, February 11, 2019

13 Years Of Blogging

... is a cry for help, right?

It are my blogiversary today, so I'll self-indulge a bit more than usual.

This has been a tough year for blogging. Some days are easy and I can sit down and blast out a long essay. Other days, I just don't feel like doing it, but I can't fight the OCD. I'm not carrying my cameras around like I used to, so the photoblogging thing is only available as a backstop from time to time.

I've thought a great deal about quitting this last year. I wonder what life would be like without the need to write every day. Since polemics are so easy for me, does the blog actually make me a worse person as I look for things to rant about?

On that note, I read someone say that taking a break from Twitter was like taking a break from anthrax. I then looked at my raw timeline, which is made up mostly of Catholics, and found that it was still an intensely negative feed. You didn't feel uplifted when you read it, you just wanted to wave your arms and yell.

Working on my most recent set of written goals, I've decided that I want to have more positive thoughts. Thinking about things for which I'm grateful would really help. I'm pondering starting or ending every blog post with a random thing for which I'm grateful. Like this.

I'm grateful for: Being born in AD instead of BC. What a drag it would be to live in a world untouched by Christ. Even were I Jewish, God would be infinite and distant. If I were pagan, it wouldn't take much thought to realize it was all hooey. And then there's the implicit, Christian ethics that shape our laws and behavior. I'm not thinking that the Romans cared all that much for loving the least among them.

Plus, I wouldn't want to walk around with a vegetable-cleaning brush on my head.
Not sure if I'll do it, but it might improve the general mood of the writing. It's hard to get angry when you think of how lucky you are.

As always, thanks for visiting and commenting. Love you guys!

4 comments:

ligneus said...

Do you know the blog The Diplomad? He used to write regularly but now he's retired he has less time! Or maybe his motivation is lessened. But anyway he writes when he needs to say something and is otherwise silent. You could try that, take the pressure off a bit and also the 'compulsion'!
Your being grateful reminds me of the Meister Eckhart prayer which I'm sure I must have sent you before but it doesn't hurt to repeat it.

If the only prayer you say
In the whole of your life
Is Thankyou,
That will suffice.

It's an interesting little exercise to tell it to random people and see the reaction, a lot don't 'get it'.

And a big help, somewhat related I think, that I keep in mind:

Sufficient Unto the Day Is the Evil Thereof.

tim eisele said...

Congratulations on the 13 years! I'm running a year behind you, but then, I never had anything like your posting frequency.

I never really got into Twitter, but from what I have seen, it (and Facebook) certainly do seem to be purposely designed to bring out the worst in people. Or, at least, to make the worst people more visible. It is quite possible that dropping it would end up making you happy.

Foxfier said...

I don't think you're always angry....

Of course, I avoid twitter like the plague. I drive past the prairie dogs and take note not to stick my hand down any holes. ;)

(OK, obscure reference is obscure)

K T Cat said...

Thanks, all. Love you guys.