ON SECOND THOUGHT . . .

This was originally going to be the post in which I told you to grab what you wanted to keep from the TBP archives, because this site was going to go away.

I had a good reason, you know. We just learned last week that we’re going to have another child, and as little time as I have to blog with one small child in the house (and one big one as well), I figured there would be even less with two. Particularly, with two who are only about 15 months apart.

But I relented. I tend to keep forgetting that I blog for myself, not for you (though, if you enjoy what’s written here, that’s great), so I really can’t give this up. There’s enough backwash in my brain from the day-to-day activities of a parish pastor; if I don’t let it out once in a while, negative consequences inevitably follow.

Still, the initial pressures of feeling like I had to post something every single day if I wanted to consider myself a “real” blogger led me to make an editorial decision back in September to focus on longer pieces posted less often, and I think that decision was wise. I’d rather have two months’ worth of posts on the main page and be proud of every one of them instead of continuing to follow the “shotgun” approach to blogging I worked with at first. That’s worked well for others, but I have noticed that the best blogs (and please note I did not say “the most successful blogs”) have a unanimity of purpose. They don’t try to be all things to all people, or try to encompass every event happening anywhere in the world. Instead, they offer focus, a chance to see the world through one particular lens that is perhaps quite unlike your own. At their best, blogs are personal without being private; at their worst, they’re just forums for recreational character assassination. (Blogs–and bloggers–in the latter category annoy me to no end. If you’re wondering why there are certain Big Name Blogs I don’t link to, that’s why.)

Since I am a man of paradox–an irreverent reverend, a reckless egalitarian who believes that not enough Americans aspire to greatness, an intellectual who aspires to be the thinking man’s Dave Barry–I’ve decided to embrace yet another paradox as my guideline for TBP. It shall become more like it was: an impersonally personal blog. I am going to dispense with the notion of what you, the reader, may or may not want to hear, and focus instead on what I want to write. Again, if you like what you read, that’s great; if not, remember that I still felt better for having written it. I still value every person who stops by, with the notable exception of the teeming hordes looking for inappropriate iconography of the semipuerile. (If doing Search Engine Answer Guy has taught me anything, it’s that you have to be very careful of your words, lest by sowing the seeds of sight gags, you reap the whirlwind of degeneracy.)

So I hope you enjoy the new TBP, which will not be tremendously different from the old TBP. Except that I won’t be doing SEAG any more, since (a) I haven’t for three months now, (b) nobody’s asked for it, and (c) I really got sick of writing it. Pickin’ on the Big Ten shall remain, however, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I write more about sports, once people start playing them again.