Prayer Blog
So, as I got to thinking about some of the issues associated with the paper I’ll be writing, it occurred to me to ask myself: in my own internal sense of where I put the focus, do I want it to be on myself, as a blogger - and blog my stuff - or on the blogosphere, and give rise to the addictive churning of memes that is kind of like the infonography that Sam alludes to, only with me it is even worse - I not just crave the information, I crave processing it and spitting out new interpretations on it . I could do this all day. To me, this is part of what it means to not just see the blogosphere as a system, but to value the system as greater than the individual - to sacrifice one’s health and well-being for the continued confluence of ideas that the blogosphere enables.
But I don’t want to do either of those. I don’t want to be some self-absorbed person that blogs about myself and my views and nothing else. Yet, at the same time, I don’t want to become some meme-processing addict that reads other blogs and blogs about how I see the dots (individual other posts) form a line and then extrapolate it to a fanciful vision of a future that will likely never be. The only part of that last one I don’t like is the “addict” part.
What should be at the center of my blogging life?
What should be at the center of my life? Should it be any different in one’s real life than in one’s blogging life?
As you can tell from some of my earlier posts, I’m definitely not a traditional Christian, but I still have the metaphor of there being a God which represents what should be at the center of my life. So, what should be at the center of my blogging life is neither me, nor the blogosphere as a system - but God. Some people may find it easier to use the terminology “the greater good” - but for me, when I think that way, I tend to still think of the blogosphere to the exclusion of the individual - so that’s why, for me, I need to think in terms of God.
So, how to best facilitate having God at the center of my blogging life, so that my virtual life can reflect my own life? Through having a PrayerBlog! This is why I’ve created one.
What’s a prayer blog, you ask? It’s the new meme I’m unleashing upon the world that I hope will take root. It’s a (usually) private blog for one’s prayers. I’m making mine public just to provide an example of what a prayer blog can look like, but I’m going to make it difficult to access (the link to it will be in a future password protected post, and the password is in this post and it is “aPrayerBlog”).
Why am I blogging about it now? My plan had been to wait until a full week was up, but today I encountered one of the best reasons for having a prayer blog: resolving CognitiveDissonance. A few days ago I also encountered another reason for having a prayer blog: facilitating detachment.
Today I saw “Def Poetry Jam” and it stirred up some CognitiveDissonance. Some of it was quite good, but some of it was not exactly what I was looking for. I saw it through one of the benefits of being aware of OwenGraduateAssociation programs. I don’t know if I would have gone otherwise. But I don’t want to contemplate it much now. I’ll “sleep on it”.
As for facilitating detachment, just thinking about making an entry in my PrayerBlog was enough to help me not respond to an e-mail in a defensive manner like I’d done far too many times in the past, but to take some time out and be a bit detached when responding to it later on.
PrayerBlogs can facilitate recollection, reflection, and focus when blogging.
A good guideline for one to adopt for one’s self, if one is serious about having a prayer blog, is that one should blog “more” (by whatever definition of “more” works best for you) in the prayer blog than in any other blogs combined - as a way of grounding you in the important instead of getting caught up in the urgent.
This isn’t for everyone. And this isn’t the answer that I have in mind for the paper I’ll be writing - I’ve got something else in mind for that. This is, however, a possible reason for why I may not be making usually blog entries as much as I have been in the past - because I’ll be taking time out to make PrayerBlog entries and to ensure that I’m not addicted to infonography and meme churning.
I’d like to thank everyone for their kind and thoughtful comments these past few posts. I’d love to get around to responding to them, but I’ve got a jam packed weekend. Here’s a list of things that makes it jam packed:
- Yoga Jamboree
- Witch Hunter Robin Marathon
- One-time grading job
- GenreEvolutionProject editorial policy project
- HAPA potluck
- church
- MichiganStateUniversity GlobalFest
- church dinner
- OwenGraduateAssociation meeting
So, I don’t expect to blog again until Tuesday (aside from the post with the link to the PrayerBlog URL for the curious).
And Sam: sorry I didn’t trackback your post, but there’s something funky with trying to get the TrackBack URL.
Everyone else: I’ll provide individual responses to your comments later on. So far no one that has commented before has ever provided a “dumb” comment after first providing a “smart” one, so if you haven’t been deleted before, don’t worry about it happening now. While I might start a QuickTopic discussion thread, I’m actually seriously thinking this will be the right time for me to create a public wiki (I’ll have in interact with my private wiki in ways I shall keep you all in suspense about). And yes, I’m opening up the whole discussion of the paper topic thing to the blogosphere.
Thanks all, and I hope you enjoy the PrayerBlog concept. If you don’t, please send it along to someone who might.
2006
This is very bizarre. 2 nights ago I laid in bed trying to fall asleep and was thinking about how I had never kept a Journal or Diary before but I had kept a prayer journal. I then was thinking about how I could deploy a web prayer journal (and as a blogger therefore a prayer blog). This thought had really intrigued me. The problem I thought would be opening myself up in a way that I had never done before. I’m generally a very open person and have no problem praying aloud in front of others, although the thought of publishing my personal prayers seems to me to be so much different. These would be my prayers, which would contain my wants, my desires, my sins, and my open heart. That’s when I realized what a blog was. I realized that if I made my prayer blog private it wouldn’t be a blog. It would be a journal on my computer. And then what? What would be different then me writing it in my personal prayer journal. Blogging is a community act where one writes to be read and then one reads that which others have written. Aye there’s the rub. The point at which my prayer blog becomes read by others, some I know and others I don’t. I’m not sure that I would have any feeling of concern if people I didn’t know were reading it, but for the people that know me? I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be ready. As I’m writing this, a thought comes to mind about my prayers being my intimate conversation with God, something that is between me and Him alone. I feel prayer journaling is important because with it we can see exactly where and when God is in our lives. It becomes almost a tracking system of sorts. For now, I’ll continue my private prayer journal……hmm…I have to think/pray more on this one.