sustain:if:able kiwi

when a blog becomes indulgent

Adam Clayton from U2 once described their album Passengers as indulgent. I took from the comment a sense that perhaps success had made them less hard on themselves and their music. They needed to learn again to be ruthless on themselves and their craft.

I have been blogging less over the last week, because I have been editing my book. A book with emergentYS/Zondervan goes through three edits; not just for grammer, but also for content and flow.

I have decided that a good editor is a gift. Hard at times, but a gift. Having to defend my work, having to read my work expressed in a slightly different way, being asked for a story here or more evidence there is a wonderful, wonderful experience.

So does blogging become the equivalent of U2’s Passengers? Indulgent and asking me to be harder on myself and my words.

oops! Just realised that in the midst of internet joy, I turned off my comments function. I was wondering why you were all so quiet!! Sorry about that.

i love the internet

i just got sent 78 spam emails in the space of 3 minutes. isn’t cyberspace a great place to be!

slow blog postings; crammed head

sorry – slow blogging period
book mss due to emergentYS this weekend
preaching sunday
preaching monday at a seminary graduation
student marking to do

There is no key .. yet

Lots of you have asked for the key and some of you might wonder why you have not yet had a key cut.

Please relax. There is no key yet. Correction. There is a physical key, but my philosophy has not yet allowed me to turn the key. I am still not convinced a key is the right way to go.

Never resign in the middle of a row.
Never take strong action in the middle of a reaction

So I am bidding my time, letting the days tick and normality return and the questions ponder. Current questions include
1. Can I be bothered running two blogs?
2. There must be a better way to protect my stuff than locking some of it away?
3. If I am a “real” Kingdom person, surely I should be glad if my stuff is borrowed. Should I not offer two articles to everyone who cut and pastes one?
4. What is “author” anyway? Am I not a postmodenist who believes the author is dead and the only authority is communal?
5. A blog takes a lot of energy. How can I create “re-energising blogging processes?
6. What is the point of a blog anyway?

bruised but

A blog break = no abuse from nameless punters … no emails to wade thru … no complex and ethical decisions about what to blog and what not to blog … no feeling like I am a baby in the matrix energy factory, with nameless people sucking me dry.

I have really enjoyed the break and have been very tempted to keep enjoying it. I found out one of the people who emailed on my stuff was a person I had helped in cyber and that was more bruising that finding out it had happened in the first place.

But then, a blog break = no meeting you … no expansion of my world … no interesting comments that open my mind … less public processing of God in my life …

OK, OK, so I will return … I will need a few more days for the bruising to die away and to put in place some lessons learnt.

At this stage I am working on 2 blogs: a publishable blog and a conversational blog.

One, the publishable blog, you can take what you want and use it to power your matrix.

The other, the conversational blog, well, if you are willing to sign up to tread carefully, speak clearly and take nothing with you, then I can throw you the keys to the front door of the conversational space. I keep your “email” promise on file and if you flog my stuff, I throw away your keys, or worse throw you to the lawyers. Sort of like a private dinner party where we all work together to enhance the conversation. We give energy and in exchange we go away richer.

You get the keys by requesting so in my publishable blog, which remains pretty much its usual self, just a bit lighter at times cos the real oil is in the conversational space where I can trust ya.

What do you think?

test

just playing with some possibilities. you should not be able to access this download. if you can, PLEASE, let me know.

Download file

Kiwi bloggers

Two new Kiwi bloggers who have survived the initial “post” and are now up and running regular. The other, the better, emergent kiwi is here. My friend Marion whom I am marrying in April, is here.

(No jokes about multiple partners please.)