The problem with continuous blogging is that posting a blog is often only the beginning of the work – comments need to be moderated and if a subject touches a nerve – then there will be lots of follow-up personal e-mails from readers. Last July, I remember staying up until 4 am when moderating the comments left on the contrasts between John Corapi and Padre Pio post. I deleted nearly as many comments as I published; obscenities, who needs them? Some people got in touch to say that since John Corapi’s ‘fall from grace’ that they had doubted their own faith and had thought of leaving the Church.
In this type of situation, it can be very difficult to choose between my immediate duties; meeting journalism deadlines and getting interviews Or trying to point out that disappointment with John Corapi was not reason enough to abandon the Church.
There is also the matter that I have the concentration span of a-mosquito-on-speed, and anything to do with by beloved blog can distract me from bigger writing assignments.
The advice given by the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook is that ‘a blog is a living thing, if you don’t feed it, it will die…’ So now after a few months absence, this is my return from hibernation.
But it is still a cold time of year, the pickings are slim and the choice is often between trying to make a crust as a journalist or blogging. Hedgehogs do not hibernate endlessly and they wake from slumber to go in search of food to keep going during the winter freeze.
In the same way that Hedgehog protection groups advise that house-holders who wish to help hedgehogs survive the winter leave out food like cat biscuits and peanuts, readers of my blog can prevent me going back into hibernation. Unlike a hedgehog, I need not wait until spring to become fully active again…
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