It was seven years ago today that I first posted to this blog, time for the onset of the Seven Year Itch--guess I shouldn't be surprised that I've been looking at wordpress.org. I'm fairly surprised I kept at it this long, honestly, and see no reason to stop anytime soon. Figure this is as good as time as any to take a breath and reflect on what I've done here. How close have I come to keeping the purpose I had from the get go?
On that first day, I said:
Why blog? It's an effort to discipline myself to write something every day. I figure if I can do that, I will begin having more discipline in different areas, I'll become a better writer, get published, make enough money to quit my lousy job, become a world-famous theologian, and attain entire sanctification!
Including this post, I've posed 1688 times--an average of .66 posts a day. Not quite as disciplined as I'd intended...I've never really gotten the "daily" thing down--tho' last year I had a
43 day streak. I'm sure that's the main reason I haven't accomplished the rest of that list.
Okay, so much for quantity/regularity of posts--we'll just ignore quality, because I'm in the mood to feel good about myself. That leaves theme (probably some other things, too, but can't think of them at the moment).
The original name of this patch o' cyberspace was
White Noise, which I took from the name of one of my top 2 novels of all time. Again,
on that first day, I laid out the direction I hoped things would take:
The name for this blog came from one of my favorite novels, Don DeLillo's White Noise. In discussing that novel, DeLillo said:
"In White Noise in particular, I tried to find a kind of radiance in dailiness. Sometimes this radiance can be almost frightening. Other times it can be almost holy or sacred.... Our sense of fear--we avoid it because we feel it so deeply, so there is an intense conflict at work.... I think it is something we all feel, something we almost never talk about, something that is almost there. I tried to relate it in White Noise to this other sense of transcendence that lies just beyond our touch. This extraordinary wonder of things is somehow related to the extraordinary dread, to the death fear we try to keep beneath the surface of our perceptions."
Similarly, my original epigraph (have abandoned those for the time being) for the blog was also from DeLillo describing the book elsewhere:
"It's about fear, death, and technology. A comedy, of course."
I think I've come closer to the goal on this one. The main topics (although I haven't tagged every post with labels, so I can't promise this is totally accurate) I've touched on are things happening with me, my family and in the news. Pretty typical for bloggers. The next big grouping involve various aspects of theology and various media (books, movies, TV, music, etc.), baseball and education follow close on their heels. It's at the other end of the spectrum that I find some surprises: I've only tagged Joss Whedon, caffeine, coffee, and Narnia once each. Not so surprisingly, I've only tagged travel and celebrities once. I've started a handful of series on this topic or that, think I've finished none of them, which tends to explain why I've started fewer lately, but am pretty sure I'll try again. I seem to do best at just grabbing what's at the forefront of my mind (and believe you me, you don't want to go further back then that--scarrrrryyyy stuff. Although, that's where we keep all the shoes in your size). In short the everyday stuff of my life comes up a lot, "the radiance of dailiness", I guess.
Of course, about a year ago I changed the name of the blog--it's also from a beloved work of literature, but carries the bonus of not leading people to think this is going to be a tech-inclined space (you wouldn't believe how many emails I've gotten about that). Also, it's in Latin--which carries a lot more weight in Reformed and Homeschooling/Classical Ed circles than technobabble, and you know me, I'm all about currying favor.
"Peace, Love, and a Sense of Fun," I think it's safe to say I touch on that regularly. Either that, or I need to read myself more closely.
I can't pause to talk about the blog without thinking of you, gentle readers (and the nastier ones, too). Some of you are sporadic, some are regular, some of you really have no business being here, but you come anyway. I wish there were more of you (the numbers ebb and flow, but there's generally 20-30 of you), but I'm very glad for each page view. Thanks for reading, I'm glad you do, I truly appreciate it. Wish you'd comment more ('tho the emails, IMs, etc. are nice, too). I guess while I have your attention, I should ask for your suggestions: what should I do more of/less of? What should I start doing/stop altogether? Is there a way for me to fit more of this orange into things?
Hope to see you around for awhile longer.
'nuff said
