too much

It has been a while since I've posted to my blog. It hasn't been because I had nothing to say. Actually, I've had too much... and wasn't quite sure how to say it.

I wanted to write about Glenn Beck and how his connection with right wing Christians puzzles me when he is a Mormon. I wasn't sure how to say that without sounding like a religious bigot so I didn't finish the post.

Then I wanted to write about the Koran and a crazy who certainly got his 15 minutes of fame by threatening to burn Korans. I didn't want to give him any more attention than he was already getting... Just one piece I was going to say - many Americans see the Koran as being parallel to the Bible, a book that tells us about God's self-revelation. That is not a good analogy. Actually, as I understand it, the Koran is more parallel to Jesus than to the Bible as it is the revelation of God, not a book that points to that revelation. So burning Korans is not the same as burning any other book.

And I wanted to write about 9/11. I've been reading some of the 9/11 Truth stuff and I have to admit that I find at least some f the arguments pretty convincing that, at the very least, we are not getting the whole story. In my very core, I don't want to believe that my own government had anything to do with the horrors of that day but I wonder... and it makes me really, really depressed. So, I didn't write about that because I was afraid that some folk would think I'm crazy... and that if I wrote it down, I'd need to look more carefully and maybe make a decision about it.

So... no posts... but later today I'll write about the Cambridge Drive Concert Series. and that excites me!

doppelganger

A friend dropped me a note yesterday that he discovered a doppelganger out there... not in the sense of an evil twin, but of a double. And not for me, but of my blog. Another person has a blog titled Thin Places and she even used the same stock format from blogger that I used.

So... if you got here looking for Amy Julia Becker's blog... this ain't it. And if you want to find it, you'll have to search for because I'm not helping. ;-)

At first I was a little miffed. My blog has been up since '05, trying to build an identity on the web, a "brand" if you will. I almost felt like my "brand" had been stolen. Of course, it wasn't, but it might be confusing for someone actually looking for my blog. And if they have been to my page before, opening her page, they may still think they got to mine with just a cursory look. Then I was hopeful... maybe someone looking for hers will find mine by mistake and I'll pick up a few more readers. While I sense we see the world a little differently and certainly write differently, there is enough commonality that some of our readers could overlap. Then I wondered if there is some way to make the whole thing easier - to differentiate between the two blogs - and who is responsible for doing that, she or I? Then I searched a bit more and found yet another blog titled Thin Places and one called From a Thin Place. There may be even more out there. Of the ones I've found, mine is oldest but I'd guess those other folk never searched for the name and saw there already was a blog with that title...

So... I'm having an identity crisis... wondering how I differentiate myself and wondering whether the blog is a helpful contribution... whether it is worth my time and energy...

blogging and politics

Lately, it looks as if a lot/most of my blogging has been about the presidential race. That makes me uncomfortable. I don't want this to be a political blog. I believe this election is extremely important, but it isn't the most important thing and it certainly isn't the only thing.

I'd like to be spending more time thinking about music, about church life, even about which strings to put on my nylon string guitar. I'd like to be focusing on the beauty around me and I'd really like to be working on my cynicism. (the McCain campaign isn't helping there... see I'm tempted to write about politics again). And I've been pretty worried about my cat who is sick and my son who is trying to figure out what comes next in his life.

So, my goal over the next week or so is to not write about politics or at least about the presidential campaign. I am going to write something about prop 8 in California, but that is a different issue altogether - sadly, it is feeding my cynicism as well.

Send some good thoughts or prayers my way and hopefully we can talk about something other than Obama and McCain.