Wednesday, March 08, 2006
In Hiding or Just Doing Better Things?
Another blogger asks, "Where are the liberals hiding?" There don't seem to be too many liberal Catholic blogs out there. One of the few just gave up blogging for Lent. I don't presume to speak for any particular ideology, except perhaps my own, and then only on really bad days. I don't listen to talk radio either, except maybe the occasional Jim Rome or local production on sports. But I suspect that blogging is rather like radio for conservatives. It's a comfortable, anonymous medium. It's easy to be critical, harder to be thoughtful. It's easy to be devotional, harder to be prayerful. It's potentially poisonous to one's own good cheer, not to mention one's moral and spiritual life. I've toyed with the idea seriously of giving it up maybe a half-dozen times since I began blogging in 2003. I don't know about others who "seem to have run out of steam," but two things keep me in it. First, I like to write, and this has been far more successful than keeping a journal. Second, there are some obviously and genuinely good people on the net, and I enjoy the frank interchange I cannot always have in my parish, family, or neighborhood. Some have been at it for some time, but reader numbers seem to be very meager. It's quite obvious that orthodox Catholics are by far more active. Compared to Madonna or the Stones, artists like Anonymous 4, Renee Fleming, or Shawn Colvin don't seem to put up big numbers either. And that's not considering those unsung church musicians who put their artistry to work for the greater glory of God and never get the credit they deserve. I'm satisfied with my traffic here. If I had Rock's popularity, I'd probably have to shut down the comment boxes. A friend recommended I expand my posts to a few a day and make them a daily feature. I'm happy with the nudge in traffic. But I don't need to take time away from my prayer life, my family, my job, my friends, my music, and my hobbies to find fulfillment. I don't begrudge Gerald and other relative blogging newbies a hefty hit parade. I'm not even playing the same game. I had a spell of commenting and being negative to the point of being occasionally detrimental to the good spirits of others when I inhabited liturgy message boards. I could return to doing that. But I don't need to do that. And if I remain a mondo monotreme or an artful arachnid on the blogger's evolutionary scale, that's fine with me.
