March Memeness II

Tagged again!

Rule 1) List three reasons for your blogging.
Rule 2) List the rules.
Rule 3) Tag three others with the thread.

1. Somebody challenged me to start a blog - she said that everybody could and should have one - so I did. I started three, in fact!


2. Then, I found that I really enjoyed doing it; there was lots to talk about - and I got to know some really great people - Derek, Christopher, Caelius, Rev. Sam, D.C., Dan (although I knew him previously), the Postulant (and congrats to him!), Fr. Chris, Tobias Haller, and so many others - via blogging. The funny thing is, I can't remember exactly how all that happened, at this point! But who cares? It did happen, and it's been fun to participate in. We have had some really good conversations - at least, I think so - and Derek even forced me to write several essays, that heinous taskmaster.
   
   We even had a group blog there, for awhile.
   
   Anyway, it's been good for me, because I tend to stay in my own head a lot and blogging forces me to think out loud, rather than internally - and that forces me to think about other people and their ideas, too. I'm more social than I used to be, by a lot actually, and the blog is one reason why, believe it or not.


3. And as Caelius always says, the best theology is happening on the blogs these days. Not that I'm part of that, but at least I get to follow along with it, and it's an excellent supplement to the actual Church, which is now going to have to work hard to keep up. Heh.
   
   Probably this will be taken the wrong way, but blogging has also helped me recognize why I tend to like talking with (look out now!) "spiritually-oriented" people more than with those who aren't; the conversations are better, I think, and deeper and more interesting. I think this is because such people have a system that they're thinking about a lot, and what the meaning of things is within that system; they actually have double lives in many ways. And it's also because most (oops!) "spiritually-oriented" people derive their systems from people and events in the very distant past, which forces them to think in broader and longer terms, perhaps. I remember when I first got interested in reading about religion; it opened up many, many questions in many different areas of interest - because at one time, religion was the general term for almost everything. The world has since become very specialized - there's Neuroscience and Modern European History and Macroeconomics and Analytic Philosophy now - but people of faith are generalists and need to know many different things. So religious people today can be both Specialists (in their work lives) and Generalists (in their faith lives); to me that's simply a bigger and more interesting view. Modern secular people seem to think of the past as one long benighted error; religious/spiritual people see far more of interest there.
   
   And I really do appreciate it that many people of faith actually question themselves and their own motives and actions, and know how to say "I'm sorry" when they realize that they have been wrong. (Not all, of course.) So they are more fun to talk with on that account as well.

I rarely tag, but this time I will: Rev. Sam, Caelius, and Dan.