...within the past year and a half or so, the blog posts have become fewer, and the comments are less frequent, too. There's still activity, but it is not quite as furious. Some of the most prolific bloggers started "taking breaks" or even "saying goodbye", because they wanted to focus more on real-life stuff. And even the more dedicated bloggers among us admitted that it is sometimes more difficult to come up with something meaningful to write. As we pondered these things in our conversation, someone summed it up: "Maybe people are getting tired of just talking about this. - from Losing My ReligionI have the noticed the same thing in the blog circles I run in and most notably in my own writing. "I'm getting tired of writing about it."
That was in part why I asked my readership about changing the name of this blog. I wondered if it was time to let go of the analyzing and spelunking of all these caves and tombs and hidden rooms of the American Christian inside of me.
So what now? Where do you go when you've mined as many bones as you can reach in the abyss of the dark rooms? What do you do when the crowded room has become thinned out as disillusioned fellow refugees have traveled onward to places beyond the boundaries of our blogs?
I have decided for me that it means I listen. Listen better, and mine deeper.
Jeff sums up his post with this:
If you are feeling stale in this journey, it's really time to be seeking God for what His purposes are for the next season for you--what do you do with what He is teaching you?I'm not sure yet what the lesson is for me these days, but I suspect creativity has something to do with it.
What's next for me as a blogger and writer? To keep at it, and find creative means to go deeper, get muddier and bring to the surface the buried, forgotten treasures of yesterday's beauty.
6 comments:
I don't think it's so much that we're looking around a now empty room, but more that we're all leaving through the same door to the next room. Trouble is, no one seems to know just what to say in this room to each other, to the institution or to those outside. Our thumb was still hit with a hammer, it was just a couple of hours ago now and it's gone from a screaming, throbbing pain that cries our for all of our attention to a deep ache that's just raw and sore. Maybe we've realized that stomping around the garage and screaming "DAMMIT!" at the top of our lungs isn't going to make the hurt go away, but we're not quite sure how to dress the wound, either.
Just because you've made the biggest leap of the transition doesn't mean that God's done messin' up your religion. In fact, you could be in for having your current one even more messed up than the previous ;) There's only one way to find out, and I look forward to continuing the journey with you.
I look forward to seeing what beautiful treasures you unearth. In all your digging in the mud though, don't forget to come out in the sunshine from time to time to see what God is doing in the here and now. :)
I wonder if in part it applies to all blogs, not just those like yours? Back 8-10 years ago, before blogs got going, the two-way email discussion list was a previous form of online community. Yahoogroups as a discussion medium hardly seems to happen these days, and works mainly as a one-way announcement list.
And of course, as the number of blogs has increased, the same readership is inevitably shared out among more of them, given that everyone has finite time online.
I also suspect that Facebook is scooping up a lot of people who might previously have found community and help within blogs. Don't know if research would confirm that.
Be encouraged that you are helping people, Pam.
Blessings
Tony
Pam, I find that just when I'm starting to grow comfortable in a certain thing (even blogland) and start thinking I know the score, something shifts and I'm left trying to figure out what changed. :) I think God is behind that many times, simply because following Him IS a journey. We always have the opportunity to camp out where we have grown comfortable, or we have the opportunity to pull up stakes and keep following Him to the next adventure. Many of us have left the "camps" of traditional Christianity, but we could form our own camps out here just as easily--and that includes how we do the blog thing. I don't want to trade one camp for another; I want to keep following. Even though it sometimes gets (annoyingly) uncomfortable to keep pulling up the stakes. :)
Thanks for the linkage. Glad to be journeying with you...
I've noticed the same things about bloggers slowing up with the need to hash over religious things. I'm SO glad that they DID hash these things over! For years I thought I was the only one, until going to the Bridge, meeting you all, and reading some blogs: helpful for my process in moving through criticism of organized Christianity. For myself, I'm still in process, but would not have made progress unless I felt understood by you all.
Thanks for all your comments.
@KJ - you make a great point. And yes, there is only way to find out! With a crowd, or on our own, the journey continues!
@CH - true words for me to take to heart. Look up. Breathe. Eat, drink and be merry with those I love for caves we will always have with us for all of our days. Thanks for the reminder!
@Tony - I think you are totally on point. Yes, I do remember the email list-servs and countless message boards, chat rooms, forums ad nauseum, etc.... and yes, my blog discussions here are typically quieter than the discussions on FB. I have the app that imports my blog posts straight to my FB notes for all to see in my FB world. Sometimes I copy n paste comments from FB to blog, and vice versa. But it is tedious...also, with the RSS feed many blog readers simply enjoy reading the content from their fave reader and do not bother to venture to the originating point. Thus, another mode of communication delivery shuts down an avenue for discussion. Having said that, most blog readers nowadays know that they are simply a click away from making their perspective known should they wish too. The internet is truly one great big giant party and it is often overwhelming. I read many blogs, but comment very little. Otherwise, I'd be schmoozing it up all over the wild, wild cyberspace and lose track of time.
I predict that more sub-categorizing and fragmenting will occur as internet users determine how to best manage all the blogs and sites and social networks that vie for our attention. Small is the new big. You heard it here!
@jeff - yep. moving on is inevitable. The only thing certain is change, goes the old proverb. We are in such great influx in so many ways and it seems at every level and realm of modern life these days. It can be tiring. Glad to have mates on the path. It helps!
@L.A. - that for sure is the great upside of all the chatter on the internet : connecting people to one another who feel or think the same way. It brings comfort and validation, doesn't it? At least to some degree for at least some part of the time.
CHeck out www.communitascollective.com It's a cyber way station for people just like you!
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