Territorial Bloggings

Over a week without posting. Who’da thunk it?

Paragraph 1: The Weather (External) — Winter is here in NW IN, in the form of sub-freezing temps & ~5″ of snow last night. I drive past lots of farmland (corn & soybean fields mostly) on the way to work, and the starkness of snow covered fields never ceases to move me. It is inspiring and desolate. Bleak but Beautiful. Restful, yet reflective of inner turmoil.

Paragraph 2: The Weather (Internal) — Intellectually, I flash on the history of our country and the hardy folks that built it. I contemplate the differences between how we interact with winter in ways that are far different than just 100 years ago. I am thankful that I live now. I am drawn to the Midwestern winter tableau. Emotionally, I feel the bleakness that I see in the fields. Waning daylight and cloudy skies contribute to my increasing moodiness. This has always been true. Even so, I have always stated that this is my favorite season. And I always will…

Paragraphs 3 & 4: Blahg — I think that one of the reasons that I always return to blogging about realitytv & pop-culture-ish stuff is this: it’s sort of like comfort food to me. It’s an escape, of sorts, from the “real” world, or at least from the daily grind that occupies my thought cycles for most of the day. There are days I’d very much like to bitch about work, not so much about specific incidents, but about conceptual things. The problem is that I don’t want to risk causing myself unneeded grief. It’s not that I think that someone is (or would be) out to get me in trouble; no, it’s more that my internal sense of impending doom gets hung up on the “what-if?” scenarios. It’s very much the same thing that keeps me from venting about things theological, as much of my thinking is done on topics that rise up at my home congregation (like folks reacting against the pastor chanting, because it’s “too Roman Catholic” - I’d really like to vent on that, but I’d hate for it to somehow get back & cause my pastor any grief…). At times/in instances like this I really do understand why some folks get involved in anonymous blogging.

I also wonder from time to time about the whole question of to what purpose do I blog. It stings when folks I respect dismiss blogging as something that is almost unredeemably (to coin a word) self-aggrandizing. I reject that assessment of blogging, particularly when it’s made by those who hold email lists (and possibly discussion forums) as somehow being more thoughtful & beneficial for thoughtful discourse. It just ain’t so. Is blogging sometimes bereft of content and purpose? Sure. Is it always so? No, of course not. Any medium where thoughts & opinions are given & discussed will have good and bad associated with it. I’ve read crap in email lists, discussion forums, and blogs. I’ve read brilliant commentary in all three. I’m glad I have access to all three. I’ll continue to use all three, despite what highly opinionated proponents of each might say about the others.

Besides, AI7 is just over a month away!

-ghp