Pax Plena Update

Almost a month ago to the day, I shared news that I would be reconsidering the direction of Pax Plena. The idea was to narrow the scope of topics covered, potentially changing the blog's content focus. While visions of topicality and sugar plums danced in my head, the actual result was simply taking a month off from blogging, and not doing much of anything.

The problem I had in winnowing the topics we discuss was two-fold.

One, my mind is notoriously prone to wander, making it incredibly difficult to focus solely on one topic. My Google Reader Feed, for example, is a veritable index of ragtag and madcap websites, each appealing to one prurient interest or another. I follow over 100 rss streams that are roughly categorized into 14 different genres, ranging from "friends" to "technology." But the overlap among the categories is considerable, reducing my organizational prowess to the level of your local ATF agent.

The second problem I had in narrowing the scope of Pax Plena is that I enjoy the writing process itself. I realize there are scores of freshmen writing students out there who beg to differ, but there's something cathartic about a white screen, and the process of transforming thoughts and ideas into words and bad puns. As they say, it's all fun and games until you go off the meds, and with writing I've been unfettered for quite some time.

Given these two rather formidable obstacles, over the past month I've dithered about making Pax Plena topic specific. Indecision begat inertia. And most regrettably inertia led to a halt in writing. But then I read a blog post from a friend, who's work I don't mention nearly enough. The post is much longer, but his take on reading and writing cut me to the quick:

Reading and writing really are good gifts, aren't they? It is through those two venues as much as any that I find myself constructing meaning, that is to say, of trying to make sense of this life. (emphasis added) Takes some work, but I would venture to say those habits of the heart and mind also bring us great pleasure.

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The thought hadn't occurred to me before, but much as my friend described, writing is the way that I make sense of life. From random thoughts about politics, to errant lessons learned on a bike ride, writing is the way in which I try to understand ideas and the world around me better.

I realize that this has been done with varying degrees of ability over the years - and to my oldest readers I'm truly grateful to you for the torture you've endured. I suppose there's a little masochist in all of us. Still, I like to think that the pieces I've created are thoughtful if not interesting, and for me that's the point of this blog really: to be thoughtful, and make sense out of the chaos we call life. Nothing more. Nothing less.

As you may have guessed, the above is really a long prelude to concluding that I plan to keep the blog as is - topically freewheeling, varied, and hopefully more honest. I expect this will change the blog in a couple of ways. I suppose this could produce more amusing pieces, which would be a nice side effect. And I suppose it could mean actually broadening the scope of topics discussed rather than narrowing them.

After all, I have a lurking suspicion that my penchant for salsa making, and my interest in dog training have yet to make the blog. But then again, perhaps some things are best kept under wraps.

As always, I'm most grateful to my readers for stopping by, and of late for your patience while I figure things out. And as I noted a month ago, the Lolcats are here to stay.

More to come...