Blogging

So, I've been thinking about blogging recently. I started this whole blog thing as an attempt to say things that I wanted other people to hear. I did that for about a year. I was a town crier, shouting about things that I didn't like, or trying to challenge people to think about things that I found important. For a year, I had very limited readership on my blog. During that time, I promised not to make my blog become a diary. To those of you for whom that promise meant something, I apologize for the past few weeks. For the past few weeks, this blog has been an attempt to get people to like my blog as much as my brother's.

Many people enjoyed reading my blog when it was nothing but political rants and ravings. Of those people, I think a substantial amount were less interested in what I had to say, and more interested in checking to see if I had updated it or not. When they saw that I had they went on their merry way without reading anything. Or they would scroll down and see that there was a lot to read, and then go on their merry way without reading anything. To that portion of my readership I say, "Why did you waste all that time?"

Then there were those who read my blog because they know me, and just wanted to see what was going on with me. To you I apologize. My blog for the past year and a bit told you little to nothing about myself. This blog told you very little about what was going on in my life, and told you instead that I get the New York Times in my email every day.

In short, for the past year and a bit, this blog was my attempt to sound more learned, more important, and more educated than I really am.

Then, everything changed. My big brother started a blog. It was an overnight success. Everyone joined in. Everyone was posting comments and reading his (long) posts. Needless to say, I was instantly jealous. Here I had been blogging for over a year, with little to no evidence that anyone was reading what I wrote. Tim wrote one post and people all over Ohio were drooling as they ran to the Internet.

I initially thought it was because people wanted to encourage him. Then, he kept blogging, and people kept commenting. Then I thought people were coming because he has pretty pictures. (Which I think is partly true.) But I recently realized that people were reading Tim's blog because he was capturing his audience. He was saying: This is what's going on in my life. Tim was telling a story.

That's what people want. People want stories. My blog was not much more than a liberal incarnation of the Baptist preacher screaming hellfire on a box in town square. Tim was telling a story.

That is what I am going to try to do from now on. To those of you who enjoyed my senseless rantings and ravings about things, I expect these types of posts to surface now and again, but I wouldn't check here everyday expecting one. To those of you who want this to serve as a diary of things I have done, I will not lead you astray. It remains my goal to not have a blog which is merely a diary.

My attempt now is to tell a story, but a story with meaning. I will be trying from here on out to use my blog to have fun, and to talk about the things in my life that are leading me to think aboud deeper issues. I will talk about my time spent at Sister Constance's this Saturday, and I'll let you know what being around Wheeling's homeless makes me think about.

For those of you that managed to read this whole post... without pictures... thank you. I'm honored. To those of you that haven't read this whole post... yeah, oh well. Whatever.