The unexamined life is not worth living.
- Socrates
Those of you who have been hanging ‘round these parts for all, most, or even some of the 10+ years I’ve been writing at this cobwebby corner of da Interwebs is familiar with my occasional existential crisis. You know the usual questions I ask myself: Is anyone paying attention? Does anyone care? Does what I’m doing here have value? Can I write?…and so on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. There have been times when I’ve legitimately arrived at a place where I’ve felt compelled to question the wisdom of continuing. There have been times when I’ve re-evaluated my approach, the topics I choose, and the level of passion I bring to my writing.
This is not one of those times; this time around it’s a wee bit different. I find myself wanting to learn how to relate to the world differently. The passion is still there, and I know I can write; those aren’t the issues now. What I wonder about is how to maintain my brand while making my writing less partisan, less divisive, and/or less zero-sum. I want WWJD to be more than merely a politics blog; it’s not like there aren’t a million of those out there already, most of them probably bigger and perhaps even better. I want my writing to become more observational and less reactionary. I don’t want to be all about the Sturm und Drang while only adding to the problem.
None of this should be taken as indication that I’m turning WWJD into a gardening blog. Far from it. Nonetheless, I do want to relate to the world differently, and I want to do it in a way that doesn’t alienate those kind enough to frequent this rural edge of da Interwebs. There are plenty of folks out there ready, willing, and able to engage in all manner of political discourse, debate, and dissent. I’m not going to step out of the arena completely, but I’d like to think there’s more to me than just a (not always healthy) passion for politics. I’d like to make it a bit more about my journey without running the risk of over-sharing. We’ll see how that goes.
As ever, I’m open to ideas, suggestions, observations, or gripes. I don’t know what things will look like on the flip side; I suspect it will be an ongoing process that I make up as I go…and I’m OK with that. I’d like to think that I can change things up now and again without becoming irrelevant. Or perhaps it’s a bit too late for that; who knows?? ;-)
Hey, after 10+ years, I think I’m entitled to reconsider things every now and then….
