This is Life!: Revolutions Around the Cruciform Axis

A Blogging Mission Statement . . . of sorts

I've been thinking for some time about the purpose of my blog. When I began blogging (v. 1.0 at Blogger) at the end of November 2002, I had no real stated purpose or intent, other than that it was a way to put out for my friends things I wanted to say. I had no real thoughts with regard to audience, assuming it would just be the handful of friends I interact with and perhaps some of my family who had internet access. Even less did I have in mind the sort of things I wanted to consistently blog about.

Soon after I started, however, I discovered other bloggers outside my circle of friends. Many had definite themes to their posts. Most simply posted what they wanted when they wanted. And ultimately, that's what I settled on.

Due somewhat to the bloggers I was in conversation with but mostly due to my own personality, I eventually began blogging more and more on theological issues. On occasion I had second thoughts about blogging--I was concerned about the time stewardship and my not-infrequent offending of my friends--but would eventually resume. I also occasionally "fasted" from certain topics, or from blogging altogether.

But recently, concerned with the lack of comments on some of my posts, I began to rethink this blog and what I'm doing with it. I have come to some conclusions about that.

First of all, there won't be any major retooling of the site. I'm not computer savvy enough for that. But I will revise some of my linkage, perhaps replace or add to some of the quotes I have, and some other minor adjustments.

But what there will be is a more focused use of the blog. I frequently post some "current event" sort of stuff, but more often than not, once the post drops off the main page, I delete it from the archives. Not that I regret posting entries like that (at least not usually), but that I don't find them to have a quality that would warrant looking at it again a week, a month or a year from now. So, there will likely be less spontaneous blogging. I need to practice the discipline of reflective blogging, instead of impulse blogging.

Since the first incarnation of this blog, I have been concerned about--and very much wanted--comment on my various posts. But over time my writing on my blog has become more definitive and less investigative. That is to say, my blog entries have become more reflections of settled convictions than instances of active searching. There may be various reasons for this, but primarily this is how I'm wired. Much of my thought process is internal. Once I've come to some internal resolution, I communicate it outward. I don't need to fight this. Certainly not when it comes to written expression. So, although I'll leave the comment features as they are, I'll be less worried about whether or not anyone comments at all. This blog will just be my thoughts, take 'em or leave 'em.

I also tend to blog just about every day. This becoming a critical time stewardship issue. I desparately need to discipline the number of days I blog. This will necessarily limit the number of blog entries I post, which will feed the need to focus my blog more specifically to various issues.

As to blog topics, I don't think there will need to be any major changes. I'll continue my "Fatherhood Chronicles" and other series of reflections, and continue to post on Orthodoxy and theology. I also need to post more strictly philosophical entries, but these being a bit more technical, I may just channel that energy into papers and articles.

I'm not sure how the frequency of posts will work itself out. And although I don't think I need to formulate and post a "mission statement," I do think I need to clarify some of these things a bit more for myself. You all should be seeing the (subtle) changes in the next few days.

Posted by Clifton at May 24, 2004 05:00 PM | TrackBack