March 7, 2005. That’s when I started this blog and three years later I’m still here writing, reading, reacting, and acting on my conviction that God demands that I express my Faith in tangible ways – whether that be through direct outreach/charity or advocacy/justice.
I’m not sure what the average life of a blog is, but three years blogging has to be like “dog years.” I feel like I’ve been writing for a looong time.
As of late, my blogging has slowed considerably. With a number of new and existing projects on my plate, I’ve not had the energy and to be honest sometimes the interest to put pen to pad…or in this case fingertips to keyboard. Like my friend Vegan Momma – who has also been blogging for three years – I may be suffering from “blog burnout.”
It’s not that I don’t recognize the value of a blog anymore. Lord knows there are some stories that I’ve covered and some buttons that were pushed via this blog that weren’t touched in mainstream media. There are a lot of people dropping their anchor on this space. (at least for 2m 10sec a pop according to Feedburner) And while we’ve finally topped 100 subscribers to this blog (106 to be exact) and more than 130,000 page loads (including the now defunct blogger version of FIA) there are only a faithful few who regularly drop in and donate their 2 cents. (Thanks Rev. C. Solomon!, Asante Bro. Jahi!, Thanks Ben!)
Over the course of this three year journey, I seem to have developed quite an aversion to what Paulo Friere calls “verbosity.” Talking just to hear one’s self talk. Since I really turned up my social activism involvement; I’ve realized that most folks are just talk. It’s like people are standing at the edge of the pool of radical social change, yet afraid to cannonball into the water. So in an attempt to fein courageous they dip their toes in proving to themselves and others that they aren’t afraid to get their feet wet. I’ve met a lot of people in this category. I love them, but I can’t allow them to take up too much of my time anymore and I can’t always heed their cautionary advice when I share with them the latest radical thought that God downloads in my spirit. And this blog – with all these words – sometimes gets on my nerves! I’ve spent so much energy writing…talking! It makes me wonder: Am I a “toe dipper” too!? So these days I’m spending far more time and energy on only a handful of projects – a select few. (mentoring, radio show, closing liquor stores, organizing clergy) While I stay in the loop of a lot that’s going on – I can’t give everything my energy because truth be told most of the meetings that I was attending were gatherings where nobody in the room had any intention of living up to the big, bad, revolutionary talk they were yapping about. As my boy, Eze would say – they were just bumping them gums.
So where does that leave this blog?
Good question.
I don’t know. I’m throwing around a couple of ideas that could keep this thing going. Lord knows that letting this space drift off into that big blogger heaven in the sky would feel like losing a good friend. And being that my family says that I don’t have any friends as it is – losing this blog would put me in a really bad spot. (Et tu’ Brute’)
So – let me let this marinate for a minute. I’m going to continue to research and explore some options. Posting may slow down temporarily so please subscribe (don’t forget to verify once the confirmation email is sent to your inbox) so you can be notified when I just have to get something out. (But expect a lot of photos, vids, and youtube in the meantime)
To The Streets!