Monday, July 14, 2014

Easier not to write

I thank those who have been emailing me to check in. Thank Gd, all is well. I am actually making progress on a sefer, finally!

Yes, I still think about blogging, pretty much daily. I have had many topics on my mind.

Israel, of course.

The rabbinate: The economics that drive the low salaries of shul rabbis. The problem of the well-meaning shul rabbi. Different models for an assistant rabbi position.

General: The fear of mediocrity. The difference between being a non-conformist and being original. Lebron James.

Personal: I've bought a house in Toronto instead of Israel, and that has upset my internal equilibrium; I'm having a hard time accepting the mazal tovs.

And so on.

But I have broken the habit of blogging, and now the fear of writing something that doesn't really capture my thoughts, or that doesn't impress me as good writing, is greater than my fear of leaving the page blank. These days, I find it easier not to write than to write, and I reach for the keyboard and then fall back, to work on something else.

I don't know what this means for the future of this blog, but that's where things are right now.

4 comments:

  1. The beauty or fun of daily blogging is that it's the total picture that counts, not as much the individual posts. Jump back in.

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  2. I will miss your blog if it goes, but I understand. Over the last few years I've moved back and forth from public blogging to blogging for friends only to not blogging to very occasional blogging and private blogging. The reasons that made me blog publicly don't really apply any more and it is hard to get involved in it. Blogging probably is a matter of habit to some extent and one can get out of that habit, for better or for worse.

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  3. You don't expect to hit home runs every time you are up at bat any more than you expect every post to be a Pulitzer prize winner.

    Don't let your concerns about not being as good as you might like to be stop you from writing.

    You have the chops, just write.

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  4. You don't have to know what the current dry spell means for the future of the blog. That's where it is right now, and that's enough. You may be inspired to return in future, you may be inspired to head in another direction altogether. Don't sweat it. Accept what is, pay attention to what you need to do here and now, and be open to what tomorrow may bring.

    As far as the house is concerned, although buying one usually feels as though one has signed one's life away in so doing, houses can be sold or rented to tenants. Having taken this step isn't the same as declaring you'll never make aliyah, so if that's part of the discomfort it can be sent packing.

    ReplyDelete