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August 31, 2004
Plenipotentiary
And hows that for a dictionary word? I was trying to remind myself what I blog for the other day when I spent some time on what I thought was a fun entry and only faithful Matt commented.
Anyway I started this blog almost 14 months ago and a lot has changed since then... but I also look back and very little has changed. I look back on what I spent the first month posting about and its pretty similar to what I have spent the last month posting about: funny stories from my life, poetry/prose, songs, Christie (then my girlfriend now my wife), issues of faith, and biblical ponderings.
The problem is that more often then not (I’d have to say most all the time) my writing doesn’t seem to elicit the response that I am expecting. I expect a veritable explosion, a volley per say of rhetoric and persuasive language contending over vital social issues and matters of the heart. In short I expect knee jerk reactions that people couldn’t help but add to the fray. Instead I get silence. Now I have come to expect far less and am amused and even delighted when one happy soul composes a brief thought and has the compassion to take the time and enter it into that little comment box.
Originally I titled this blog Synthesis because I wanted people to come together here in an effort to create something new. Recently I changed the name to Paul Johnson… …for a short while in an effort to re-describe the effect that I was and was not getting. This blog will most likely never attain the controversial status that I had hoped but it will remain a place for me to ply my intellectual wares, loosen the personal writings that haunt my mind, and receive for it a small pittance; those precious comments a diminutive indicator that my efforts have not gone unnoticed. Thank you.
Posted by paul at August 31, 2004 05:42 PM
Comments
Paul, I don't comment because I am not intellectual. At least according to autumn.
Posted by: mike at August 31, 2004 09:27 AM
Ditto for me Paul.
I thought about scrapping my blog for lack of interest. But I kept it, and have pretty much turned it into my quiet time journal.
Once in a while someone does comment so that is a benefit over my handwritten QT journal, which no one else ever sees. (I still use that, btw, to write about stuff I want to keep private.) I also am able to more easily put up artwork, song lyrics, links and other stuff that make it more interesting than my handwritten journal.
I'll post more often on yours if you like. I just don't want to bogart your blog. I notice that a lot of times, I'm the last one to post a comment, which makes me think I may be a blog killer.
Posted by: Different Dan at August 31, 2004 10:25 AM
wow. I would hate for anyone to feel like they have to be something or someone to comment on this blog. So mike, go right ahead.
And Autumn, be nice.
Posted by: paul at August 31, 2004 10:25 AM
I think that this type of communication lends itself to insecurities like killing a conversation with one comment, not getting noticing or seeing your ideas as insufficent for the intellectual level of the post.
I don't follow this rule very well but I think it best to leave something every time that you read someones blog even if its just a smiley or an amen to let them know that you were there. And let go of those blog insecurities... :)
Posted by: paul at August 31, 2004 10:33 AM
Good points, Paul. I too am sometimes discouraged at the lack of response to more serious blogs. I am also surprised when someone tells me that they read my blog, because I find myself gearing my entries towards only those who comment.
On the other hand, from a commenter's perspective, I find that the more in-depth entries are usually the most difficult to comment on. These entries seem to demand a lengthy conversation rather than a brief remark.
Posted by: Megan at August 31, 2004 11:57 AM
i'm here and still reading! :)
Posted by: leah at August 31, 2004 02:13 PM
Like Different Dan, I sometimes don't comment because I don't want people to come to your blog,pop open the comments and say, "Oh, it's KATHY again. Does she think she has something to say about EVERYTHING?
I will keep the synthesis thing in mind.
And I will try to read your blog before 10 p.m., when my brain is mush.
More poetry, please!
Posted by: Kathy at August 31, 2004 08:03 PM
At least we know that people visit your blog!
Posted by: greg at August 31, 2004 09:37 PM
thanks all for your vote of confidence. Never fear I shall not give up.
Posted by: paul at August 31, 2004 09:37 PM
one thing to take heart in, though, is that blogs appealing to a lower intellectual common denominator (like mine) arent doing all that well with comments either, so at least it's an across the board thing....glass half full?
Posted by: erik at August 31, 2004 11:08 PM
I don't think that I am intellectially shooting over peoples heads. Where do you people come up with this stuff? If you want to read some truely intellectual drivel (I mean necessary rhetoric thought) read some of ochuks posts or some of the links that he has on his sight. That should get the intellectual heart pumping much harder then my site.
http://www.ochuk.com
Anyway... I'll give your site a try erik. :)
Posted by: paul at September 1, 2004 08:25 AM