Some Things I Have Learned from Blogging (And a Goodbye for Now)

Some Things I Have Learned from Blogging (And a Goodbye for Now) June 24, 2016

It’s been an interesting experience. I mean blogging. I have published here somewhere around 1,200 essays–including those I posted to my blog at www.rogereolson.com before joining Patheos. Recently I have begun to feel that I have said all I have to say and am simply repeating myself or saying things that do not need to be said.

From this experience, writing this blog and moderating the comments (and reading and hearing private feedback), I have learned how difficult, in some cases impossible, real communication–as a meeting of the minds–can be. I am not as good at it as I thought. And sometimes even when I think I have done my best, even the best that can be done, it has failed; I have failed.

There was a time when I looked forward to expressing my thoughts and opinions here and reading the responses and engaging with the commenters in conversations. Recently that has not been the case; doing this blog has become a burden and an emotional drain–something I do not look forward to every day.

In brief, I am burned out–with this particular task–and it is time to step away from it and focus on other things. I may someday return to this, but it is best for now to “give it a rest.”

I want to thank all of you who have been supportive and helpful–even with criticisms of my published thoughts (here and elsewhere). I have tried to remain open to constructive criticism and correction; I’m sure I have sometimes failed at that and been unduly defensive.

So this is “Goodbye and good luck”–for now. I do not know when or if I will return to writing here. I will continue to read and moderate comments for a while, but I will use my often stated criteria in deciding which ones to post, which ones to respond to, and which ones to delete without comment.

 


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