a philosophy of blogging...

Blogging, it seems, is the topic of a lot of ihop blogs the last few days. Kind of funny. Lots of people sitting around blogging about blogging. How to blog. Why blog. Who should blog. What's in a blog. If a blog is posted in the forest and there's no one there to spell check it, does it get read?

True confession. In over four years of blogging, I never gave that much thought to how or why. That's not to say that there is anything wrong with doing so...but I do think that an over abundance of navel gazing can make a good thing a boring thing.

That being said, I hereby present you with my blogging manifesto, which I vow to never refer to again.

1) This blog will not be topical.
Common sense says to find your niche and work it. People with like interests will read. I think that's true. I also think it's incredibly boring. I really don't have A.D.D. - at least I don't think so. I didn't wait around for the test results. I just have a wide range of interests and don't want to quit blogging about any of the various tangents that I frequent. Welcome Burners, Christian mystics, and home improvement gurus. You all have a home here.

2) This blog will not be limited by the reader's understanding.
Maybe it's because the topics are so varied. Maybe it's because I have a tendency to make vague references to other posts or happenings. Maybe it's just because I don't make much sense. Whatever the case, I get 2 or 3 emails a month telling me "I don't understand half of what you write." I'm good with that. I'd kind of like to get it up closer to 6 a month, but building a confused readership takes time.

3) The blog is going to feature a lot of the mundane.
Most of life is mundane. I think there's a reason for that. There are lessons to be learned in the day in and day out of life. When we moved to IHOP, Kelsey gave me a gorgeous leather journal. I remember thinking "this is so beautiful, I'm going to only write profound things in it....". Quit laughing. Six months later I was on page fifteen. I finally gave up and started writing everything under the sun in it. The writing got to be a lot more fun (and probably better, although is still rarely profound).

4) This blog is going to be my mental petri dish.
I grow stuff here. Whims. Theories. Ideas. Sometimes, the stuff you're reading seems half baked because it is half baked. I need to roll it out in the pan of the blog to let it rise and see what it will be. Some ideas don't make it. Others have gone on to be articles, sermon illustrations and that sort of thing. If you hear me teach, take some strange solace that I have this spot to try things out. It could be worse. I could be testing these things live in front of people and not online where you can roll your eyes and hit delete.

That's enough for tonight.