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| That's Me to the Right |
I'm no luddite. Yet two years ago blogging was anathema to me. I thought the whole point of a journal was to keep it under wraps, that if your friend found it, they were out of luck because they didn't have the key. Blogging seemed to turned that on its head. People journaling, detailing their lives in a digital exhibit, all hoping to be found. Even though most blog are not found, its like dancing naked on the streets. The internet is big, and you never know when some Russian middle aged dude will be getting a peep.
That all said, I feel as though I am being swept away into a culture that is foreign to me. I know much good is accomplished in blogging. I really do. However, I always intended to make this site more of a a dissemination channel. I enjoy the interaction, but this is more about me telling my family and friends "why I am Catholic".
Thus, I am taking a break to figure it out again. I won't stop writing, but it will be off-line. When I come back, I cannot promise that there will be a "standard rotation" of publishing. I understand that in blogging, being consistent makes a blog better. I'm just going to have to disappoint. I will publish when I have something to say that contributes to my story. Case closed. If you don't see something for a while, it's because I don't have anything to say worth contributing to that story.
One last thought. I'm concerned about a trend in the online world. I'm afraid that our writing online--be it Facebook, blogging, Twitter, etc.--may be contributing to a problem and not a solution. The problem is, of course, attention span. If Christianity takes anything, it takes having an attention span. I know that the culture is obsessed with sound bites, and that in an attempt to "reach them" we communicate in their mode. I think this is backwards. If we are to evangelize the world, the first step will be to train them to pay attention.
Look! Don't turn your head away. Look! Don't look down at your "smart" phone, chomp on your gum, or search something to TiVo. Look! Look at him! Gaze upon him. Stay there. Be like Mary, and allow the sword to pierce your soul at the foot of the cross. The first step is to pay attention. The sword will never even come unsheathed if you don't have an attention span. You are going to have to scroll for this one. There are no words in bold face to help you skip along.
Stop.
Read Him.
May my posts be the cause of your continual turning to Christ, and like Mary, that we would all have an attention span to "watch with him but for an hour" or more, and be the cause of our culture to move beyond that nihilistic space between infancy and maturity. As Catholics, may we all demand more from our society, to go against the grain, to pray, fast, and do penance, and to call men off-line where the poor, naked, and homeless are.
That will be my plumb-line. I want every post to spur you to stop reading. That maybe when I'm done my stat-reader will indicate "0", and that I will know you are out there somewhere reading a book or living the Gospel in all its incarnational glory.
"See you" when I see you. Peace to you on your journey.
