I think I’ll be taking a break from blogging for awhile. Why?
1. I’m tired of talking about politics and society. Those who agree with me don’t need to hear more, and those who don’t aren’t going to listen anyway. I’m not sure it’s possible to change minds anymore. Dialogue is dead.
2. I’ve tried posting only happy stuff, and I just can’t keep it up. Perhaps I’m just too negative, but it’s hard to stay positive. It either comes out sounding like Pollyannastic denial or relentless crowing about how wonderful my life is.
3. My life is interesting to me, but it doesn’t change quickly enough to be interesting to anyone else. I refuse to descend into discussing my breakfast.
4. I lack the courage to write about what I really want to write about. And the world has done an excellent job of convincing me it would be met with great disdain and venom if I did.
5. If I ever do become famous there are people out there who will use every word I’ve ever written here to bring me down. Why give them ammunition?
6. My posts tend to be either short tripe or long thought-pieces. I only really have the time to do the latter, and half the time I end up not posting them because I know it’s going to offend someone.
7. “Blogger Burnout” has been codified, and is therefore cool.
I may be back. I may not. Maybe I’ll wipe the database and start over with something harmless and inane. Who knows. I might buy a pogo stick and travel the world.
Well, I always enjoyed your posts, even when we didn’t agree. I looked forward to them. You did have some legitimate reasons for stopping, though.
And thank you for not discussing your breakfast. I will miss hearing your opinions on things, even though I violently disagree with some of them.
Good call on the breakfast thing, Ron.
And that is part of the problem. I don’t wish to provoke violent responses in people. And I don’t wish to spend my life tiptoeing about for fear or accidentally hitting a hot button. It’s easier for everyone if I just surrender the field. That’s what the vast majority want, anyway, for people like me to just shut up. So…I will accommodate.
I hear you on the tiptoeing. I don’t like it when people surrender the field out of frustration, but I can understand it when every hill becomes the one everyone’s willing to die on whether they understand the hill or not.
Hey, what’s wrong with discussing the breakfast?! I would say it was pretty good this morning: four different kinds of cold cereal to choose from and homemade zucchini muffins that our daughter said were more like dessert than breakfast.
There. I could talk breakfast anytime, anywhere. 🙂
Well, those who wouldn’t be bored to tears (some people just don’t take breakfast very seriously, which I have some difficulty understanding) would be made insanely jealous. 😉 Certainly our breakfasts would make better posts than most.
Score one for Terhi.
Welcome the the Island of Atrophied Bloggers. I totally understand and will miss your posts and the tips for great music. You have been the cause of more than one lost hour at work. 🙂
See you in a couple of weeks, Thom. Hubby is chasing me to leave my computer and cell phone off for an entire week, so at least I won’t be missing your posts.
It must be getting pretty bad, Kim, when the owner of the Apple store thinks you’re spending too much time on his products. 😉 Enjoy the intervention, and we’ll see you when you’re out of rehab.
Just so you know, one of your posts led me to my all time favorite TED talk. I’ll miss your links to TED talks, music etc. have you ever thought of becoming a reviewer?
Thought about it, but I don’t finish books fast enough to maintain much of a pace. But if I look back over my past year or two of content, with a few exceptions my most popular posts are my reviews. I am considering changing the focus of my blog, as well as the frequency of posts. But for now I’m taking a break so I can have the time to rethink things.
Am I imagining things or did you say you were going to take a similar break a few months back?
I probably did, and I probably did. I’ll bet I never said how LONG a break it would be.