Blogpology

Now look carefully at the title. This is not entitled blogology, which would be the study of the history of weblogs and their societal impact.

Neither is it blogistics, which would measure the statistics of weblog sites, such as the percentage of certain types of blogs, number of hits per day, etc.

No, this is a blogpology. This is where the blogger apologizes for the appalling lack of blogging he has done lately to anyone who might care.

A while back I promised to blog more frequently, and not always to make my blogs into articles. Yet I have not kept that promise, so for that I ask your patience and forgiveness. I was trying to get at least one out a week, and thought I was succeeding for a time. Yet when I made that claim recently, a blogging buddy of mine whose regularity and interesting blog I admire challenged me (before I dropped out of the blogosphere like a plane with engines failing), and he was right. I have not even kept that one per week pace. Oops - I have slipped into blogistics. Anyway, to him (you know who you are and with this hyperlink now so does everyone else!) I humbly offer my blogpology.

I could offer excuses. (Be careful here, for I'm actually offering some excuses under the pretext that I am not. Blogpology is a fine art, you know.) For one, I have a hard time writing my blog like a diary. Though on occasion I write about my family or personal experiences, I struggle doing too much of that. I know how I feel when listening to someone who talks incessantly about himself. Maybe I could be convinced that the rules of polite discourse do not transfer directly to blogging, but they still give me pause at the ole keyboard.

Another excuse I could offer is that much of my extra time has been spent lately caring for the affairs of my mother, who spent another four weeks in the psychiatric wing of a hospital and was just recently released. And so although this is on my mind a great deal and I have had some interesting experiences, the private and painful nature of this means I do not want to blog anymore about this than I already have.

Another issue is my pastoral charge. Recently I read of a giant of the faith (I won't even mention who he is so as not to embarass myself by invoking his name in my defense) who spoke of how difficult it is for men fully engaged in the direct shepherding of people to be able to write extensively. He left the pastorate in order to write, and left many books behind as a result. Though certainly some great pastors seem to be able to do it all, writing included, I find my spirit is willing but my flesh is weak in this area. Having an "open study door" policy often cuts short my writing attempts.

But enough with the excuses I could offer :). I blogpologize and move on. Maybe I'll get to the point where I can just write everyday about silly things (like the banana sticker I found on my backside this morning sneakingly placed there by one of my children that read "Perfectly Fat Free!") or realize not every post has to be an article (see how even this attempt just to apologize resulted in one, albeit a poor example?). So for now, I'll just try to get back to some semi-regular blogging at least, and be content with not "falling off the blog" altogether.

Oooh, what a bad pun and ending that I'm sure has already been overused. But hey, what do you expect from a blogpologist?