Saturday, February 3, 2007
On growing quieter.
First, a hearty congratulations to the winners of the third annual Unitarian Universalist blog awards! And thanks to my readers who nominated me in several categories and who cast so many votes for me. I came in second in the Best UU-Themed Blog category, and I'm really honored by your votes. Thank you!
Second, I have to confess that I can't keep up with my own expectations for this blog anymore. As regular readers have undoubtedly noticed, I post original commentary less and less often and have said almost nothing about topics you and I both know I care about: A Mormon in the White House? Is Chris Hedges paranoid? Can Dick Cheney be stopped? When will we go to war with Iran? How can liberal churches get their mojo back? I don't have answers to these questions because I haven't had time to make up my mind and tell you.
You can see the drop-off in commentary most clearly in my list of favorite posts from 2006, where I highlighted two or sometimes three posts a month from January to June but only one post every other month in the second half of the year. What has changed, of course, is that my job expanded significantly last summer and now takes most of my attention. And I don't see much free time on the horizon.
I'm still trying to figure out how to keep this site useful to you and engaging to me given the constraints I feel. I started this blog more than four years ago and have loved meeting so many people through it. I realize that this site could go off the air and the "interdependent web" of UU blogs would continue to grow and thrive, which makes me very happy. But I also think I have distinctive things to add, and I wish I had the time to say them. I'm sorry to have grown quieter.
Update: Will Shetterly reminds me to say that you can keep up with my sporadic posts via RSS. You can also join the 150+ (oops! make that 40) readers who get their Philocrites posts by email:
Copyright © 2007 by Philocrites | Posted 3 February 2007 at 12:10 PM
Previous: Moments in emboldenment.
Next: A few noteworthy new Unitarian Universalist blogs.
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Philocrites
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Commentary by Chris Walton on Unitarian Universalism, liberal Christianity, American religion, and liberal culture. Contact me.
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5 comments:
h sofia:
February 3, 2007 12:55 PM | Permalink for this comment
I have noticed you've been quieter, but I can certainly understand why. The off-line world is pretty important! I still think of your site as the "hub" for the UU blogs I read the most, so I hope you don't give up on blogging altogether! You don't have to post all the time to be relevant.
PeaceBang:
February 3, 2007 01:07 PM | Permalink for this comment
I've missed your more frequent writings, too, but would feel quite impoverished if you went offline. To echo what H Sofia says, you're our "hub" and even if you post less often, when you do it's well worth the wait.
will shetterly:
February 3, 2007 01:16 PM | Permalink for this comment
Put up a post encouraging people to subscribe to you via RSS. Maybe point them toward Blog Lines and Google Reader if they don't want to use their browser's RSS capability. It ain't like the old days when we had to post every day or two to keep folks coming back. Post when the spirit moves you!
Philocrites:
February 3, 2007 01:47 PM | Permalink for this comment
Thanks for the reminder, Will! Here's my RSS feed — and you can sign up for email delivery of my posts by entering your email address in the form at the bottom of the sidebar on this page.
Thanks for your kind words, PeaceBang and h sofia. Don't worry: I won't pull the plug.
Philocrites:
February 4, 2007 10:08 PM | Permalink for this comment
Oops. In my updated note about email subscribers, I misinterpreted my Feedburner stats. Although there are 150+ subscribers to the RSS feed, there are only 40 email subscribers — until you sign up!
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