I Miss the Blogosphere

I miss when the Blogosphere felt like a neighborhood with all sorts of takes on the same reality, with slices of home life here, theology there, humor another place, sarcasm another.  I miss feeling like walking through the internet like browsing the North End of Boston, or all the hidden lovely places in New York.   Now, everything feels like Best Buy and Walmart with a Starbucks on every corner.

There are sharp moments and glimmers of beauty and whimsy, but most of what we find, is what we've always found, and very little of it stretches us, challenges us, or delights.  I wonder, have I stopped looking, or have the shiniest of places been discovered and moved?

Wandering Facebook doesn't lead to anywhere I haven't been, and it isn't that I want to go somewhere new, it's that I want to feel welcomed.  Every site feels like a place that's lost some of its luster, some of its joy. Maybe we ran too fast to start, but now we're crawling.

Everywhere I look, there is condemnation, condemnation of the condemnation, condemnation of those apologizing, condemnation of those criticizing the apologizing, and all of it, leaves a bitter aftertaste like I burnt my mouth. 

My own blog's become simply a link spot to published pieces.  In one sense, it's smart, not to give away writing for free, but in another sense, it's wrong because it means I don't play with my words, I think about what I want to write in hopes of getting published.   It's eliminated a lot of whimsy.  The Small Success Thursday exercise kept me blogging on a regular basis for free, but now that's gone too. 

So I'll try to restart this party, to do my part to reopen the Mom-Pop store of the blogosphere. I'll still link to pieces, but I'll try to keep this spot lighter and brighter...to that end...

I'd better get to writing. 
I feel better already. 

If you read this, leave a comment. It's old school I know, but so is blogging now a days so come on in, I'll serve chocolate and diet coke and a side of humor I hope.