Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Holiday hiatus

It hadn’t been my intention to suspend writing this blog for so long. But like with everything else that’s happened since I started the blog almost four months ago, the break has been a learning experience.

It confirmed that this blog is not my highest priority. With family tragedy and the rush of the holidays combined with the backlog of chores on the farm, I realized that my real life is more important to me than the virtual and mysterious world of cyberspace, however important I think my thoughts must be that they should be shared with a global anonymous audience.

This is not to diminish the work of bloggers who put in time every day building networks and organizing progressive communities, or simply stating their opinions on the issues of the day. But as a personal choice, it’s more important for me to have enough firewood to keep the house warm and to meet my other family responsibilities, than it is to add another daily frequency to the internet’s white noise. I just don’t have enough time to do everything I want to do. And I’m a slow writer.

As I’ve said before, I think that everything that needs to be said is already being said somewhere on the web. The missing component is concentrated consensual action. There is plenty being done, and being organized, on many ad hoc levels, that have an effect in moving the nation and the world in a progressive direction—witness the election of Barack Obama, who, whatever his multiple connections with the military-industrial complex and the New World Order, is an improvement over the current puppet.

But the real change we need, as I’ve also said, goes way beyond electing the liberal wing of a post-democratic, post-constitutional government. And I don’t think you need to hear my opinion every day to make that happen.

I will, however, continue to express my thoughts here from time to time, hopefully a couple of times a week. I do like the freedom of being able to say whatever I want to say that comes with a blog. But I most enjoy doing more substantive pieces, and those take more time than I can usually spare in a single day. Hopefully, this will be a realistic compromise with my schedule.

In light of the fact that I won’t be writing every day, I’m finally going to activate an email list to let you know when I’ve got something new up. If you haven’t already, drop me an email and I’ll put you on the list.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year, and thanks for reading.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Writing is self-gratification, requiring a firm grip on a hard numero uno pencil and a vivid imagination. When reality creeps in, we’re often left flaccid, feeling kinda small, as we piss in the wind.

Over the past eight years Dubya has made a great whipping boy. Will we continue to whip a dead horse (or in this case, a lame ass), or are we truly looking for accountability? If so, we need to acknowledge the fingers pointing back as we seek to point the finger of blame. Real change is only brought about by individual change. The problems we now face are self-inflicted. We live on a planet that can only sustain about 3 billion souls. We now surpass that by nearly 4 billion. Compounded by our excesses, our very existence is threatened. This reality makes all other issues pale in contrast. Our government believes that all we need is more paper and ink to solve our problems. Then there are the delusional, who believe this is all preordained, and our only salvation is prayer. As our climate heats up humanity will continue on its merry way, exacerbating our problems. At some point we will arrive at our final destination and be faced with the reality that we are a species that eats its young, as they are consumed as a consequence of our self-serving nature and our insatiable appetite for things.