Truthful Tuesday on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 - Thoughts and Theories

Being truthful about ones blog is not exactly a big challenge for most of us. It's kind of like talking about ourselves because

OUR BLOGS ARE US

Whether they are all photographs or poetry or writing or some of everything, they are us -- maybe more than any other kind of writing or publishing could be,

If you run a prompt, how much have you tweaked and modified your prompt from what it initially started as? If you don't run a prompt, what deliberate changes have you made to your blog since you first started blogging? In either case, have there been any unintentional changes that just sort of happened on their own?

I ran a challenge briefly -- just six months. It was too much like work. Maybe because I tend to be hyper-organized (which I also was while working), I get so busy trying to perfect the format, it became exhausting. I quit -- and finally took a long, deep breath. I have since then resisted all efforts to do it again, even part time. For some reason "running" anything bring up the portion of my brain I call "the executive administer." I think that was how I got through years of extremely detailed technical material, managed to write huge multi-volume books for people who had degrees in subject I couldn't begin to imagine -- and who were obviously much smarter than I was in every way that mattered. And yet I was better at explaining what they did better than they could. Go figure.

I haven't made any deliberate changes to my blog except to blog less frequently. There are several reasons why I really needed to do this. First, Garry is at an age and stage where he is wants more attention from me. He's more affectionate, touchier. Friendlier. I need to to reach back because we are getting old and I don't want my memories of Garry to be glimpses of him between blogs. Life is getting in the way of blogging.

Unintentionally? Less politics and if political, usually publishing posts written by someone who has a professional grip on the subject. I like historians writing about history, ministers writing about theological matters, artists writing about art, writers talking about their books and their process.

The movement from my writing a lot of political stuff was an early development. I don't like hurting people and that kind of writing always seems to cause hurt, even if unintentional. I also didn't want to be known as a "news" source because I'm not. There are issues I care about, but I'm no expert.

I'm a good student and I repeat things I've learned, but I'm not a pioneer. I try to find people who really are pioneers and give them my platform. That's how we all picked up followers in the beginning, remember? Someone with a big audience liked your stuff and you wrote a piece for them and got a few new followers -- and passed it along when we earned our spurs.

Rich and Garry

I also have co-writers. Rich Paschall (Chicago) was the first regular writer to sign on. He has been really dependable and a huge help when I've been too sick to write. Garry writes when I nudge him and Tom writes nothing for months, then writes three or four posts in a cluster. I haven't heard from Ellin (as a writer) in a while. Otherwise, I reblog a couple of authors regularly (Sean Munger, historian and climate scientist) and a couple of others who don't post regularly.

Overall, I'm just slowing down. I'm getting older and I need time to be just a person and not always working on something for the blog. I'm not planning on stopping, but I days when I have something to say and a lot of days when i don't.

I go completely photographic for a couple of days and usually find something to talk about. I'm not happy with my blog, but I'm unhappy with the world. It's a mess out there and just staying sane is a job all by itself.