ON MY WAY

Well, I’m off and running, and I’m already learning a few things. And the first one is that, to begin with, you have a tendency to blog about blogging. It’s just the main thing that’s on my mind right now.

Second, you need to be careful. I sent out an email to almost everyone in my address book to let them know about the blog. Unfortunately I didn’t click “blind copy” and ended up publishing everyone’s email address to all my friends. I have very nice friends but, just the same, if you are one of those people who tries to keep their email address confidential please forgive me. I remember when I had to really work to offend dozens of people at a time; now I can do it with one wrong click. Ah, the new millennium.

Third, people are very kind, at least when you’re at the baby stage. Thanks so much for all the responses, email and on the site. I will continue my reflections on Livin’ in Babylon as it seems to be a topic to which people can relate, and in the process I will share more about my own personal pilgrimage.

Fourth, it’s surprisingly intimidating, even for a preacher, to share in this public way. That’s a good thing in that it makes me really think about what I think, and I expect it’s the same for those who respond. A blog’s like a big classroom. Of course, one of the nice things about cyberspace is that you can fool around in the back of the class without getting caught. But everyone still gets to hear you when you do speak up, so watch your language. This is community, and isn’t it fun to think how we can shape one another just by sharing who we are and what we think?

And this, I suppose, is one of the real purposes of blogging, and perhaps of living in general. It’s a point Ray Bradbury makes in his delightful novel Something Wicked This Way Comes. Speaking of the special friendship shared by two young boys, the protagonists in the novel, he writes, "So there they go, Jim running slower to stay with Will, Will running faster to stay with Jim. Jim breaking two windows in a haunted house because Will's along. Will breaking one window instead of none, because Jim's watching. God, how we get our fingers into each other's clay. That's friendship, each playing the potter to see what shapes we can make of the other."

It will be interesting to see how we shape up.