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Not Totally Blogless (Vol. 4, No. 52) I was reading Preacher Mike’s blog yesterday. He posted an old blog from six months ago, confessed to it, and wondered aloud if he had done a “blog no-no.” And he pondered on whether such rules had been written. Steve, Jr. said “yes” and linked us to a page that referenced various dos and don’ts of blogging. (Just in case you haven’t discovered blogging, a bit of explanation: “Blog” is short for web log – an online diary for ordinary and extraordinary people. Ordinary people would be people like me who inspire few readers but who think that maybe some truly hard-working book editor is out there scouring the blogsites for the new John Grisham or Annie Dillard or . . . Dave Barry. Extraordinary people would be people like Preacher Mike who others clamor after simply because people like Preacher Mike have something worthwhile to say with their writing.) I’m not much worried about the rules for blogging because I don’t blog. It’s a good thing, too, because my writing breaks the seventh commandment of blogging: “Thou shalt not write lengthy articles like those Cretans of old – but short, pithy bursts of language instead.” So since I write borderline, lengthy articles and suffer from pithiness deficit syndrome, I’m pleased to announce my familial ties to old Cretans. And I experience similar results. Not many readers. If you’re one of the two or three who have asked me, you already know that I’ve been writing for four years. I spread that over seven years. But to make the conversation simple, just pretend that I started writing four years ago. I wrote before there were blogs. For three of those years, I emailed my writings directly to people who requested them. Now, I simply email a hyperlink to that list whenever I post a new article on the website. I think people like that better. They don’t feel nearly as bad about not reading my work if it’s not automatically in front of them. (And, if you’re thinking that I’m trying to make those non-readers on my list feel guilty, remember – they’re not reading this anyway.) When I say I don’t blog, please understand that I do read the blogsites of a few. Preacher Mike. Singer Val. Mainly because I go to church with them and they really write good stuff. But I don’t blog back. I don’t have a blogsite nor do I leave comments on the blogsites of others. It’s not a moral position. Perhaps it has more to do with my walks through the aisles of the big bookstores. I walk with amazement through the bestseller aisles. I gape at the awesome scholarship of the historical novels. I wonder at the wit and wisdom of the comedy writers. I dream. I aspire. I mentally travel my world-wide promotional tour. Then, right before I leave the store, I walk through the “bargain books” section. Stacks upon stacks of books. Most of them never made it. No one was inspired to offer up critical acclaim or even bend back a page at a particularly spell-binding moment in the text. I close my eyes when I walk through this section – not a particularly graceful strategy given the propensity of book vendors to place sale merchandise in the aisles. Yet, with my eyes closed, I envision the eventual fate of my authorial efforts – a teetering stack of wordy tomes with a hand-lettered sign, “FREE – TAKE ONE or two or however many you can carry.” With that image clearly beaming, I abandon my dream. I leave the store vowing never to entertain the thought of writing again. And then I return to my computer, peck out another page, and send out an email telling people it’s there. Why? Because a few good friends, one or two acquaintances, and every once in a while, some kind stranger who stumbles on to something I’ve written, stops for just a moment and encourages me. That’s really why we do everything we do in life, isn’t it? Just to hear a few words of encouragement for something we’ve attempted. I don’t offer those words of encouragement nearly enough. So, maybe I should start a blog. It would say the same thing everyday: “Hey, you know that thing you did? It was great. Keep up the good work!” Hope you read that.
Shine On!
copyright 2005 Joe L. Cope
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