I’ve been writing for most of my life, so it’s hard for me to analyze what I do. Most of the time I just write. However, even for the most experienced writer, it’s helpful to practice different styles and types of writing, as that’s a good way to improve.
Continue readingblogging
Blogging and privacy
People are often confused that I’m a blogger but I really value privacy. They seem to think that having any sort of internet presence is incompatible with privacy. In this post, I will attempt to explain why that is not the case, why privacy matters to me, why it should matter to you, and what that has to do with Pagan stuff.
Continue readingFollow Friday
Just been having a conversation with someone I’m following about how to find good blogs to follow on WordPress.
I don’t use the search function very often. I have found the occasional good stuff via search, but it is rare.
Instead, I follow the blogs of people who write good comments on blogs I’m already following. Or people I find on Twitter or Instagram who share an interesting article. Or people I know from other contexts.
I have also followed a lot of people whose posts are featured in The River Crow’s excellent series, Friday Foraging.
In this post, I am going to share a list of the people whose blogs I am following on WordPress. (The title is from #FollowFriday on Twitter)
300 followers
I reached a milestone of 300 followers. Thanks everyone! Welcome to new followers, and thanks to old followers for continuing to read my stuff.
Being yourself online
Nimue Brown has written a great article on various types of online performance, and how to remain authentic even while curating your online persona.
I try to keep my online persona as close to the real me as possible. But obviously you’re getting an edited version.
Yes!
And now, having mentioned the things I don’t do, let’s talk about the things I do.
Mostly because they enhance my life in some way.
200 followers
I reached a milestone of 200 followers. Thanks everyone! Welcome to new followers, and thanks to old followers for continuing to read my stuff.
Notable and quotable 5
This week I have been mostly reading The Guardian with great sadness over the horrific murder of 50 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, and growing incredulity at the self-inflicted wound of Brexit. So I have not been keeping up with what’s going on in the blogosphere.
However, I just spotted this excellent post about queer magic by Julian Vayne.
Notable and quotable 1
Inspired by The River Crow’s Friday Foraging, I decided to create a roundup of posts that I found interesting, inspiring, or important over the last week.
Overlapping Circles
When I started writing for this blog, I had some sort of idea that I would systematically wade through the various areas covered by theology – the personal, the interpersonal, our relationships with spirit, the nature of deities and spirits, interfaith dialogue within the Pagan movement, dialogue with other religions, community, society, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, and so on.
But all of these issues overlap with each other and are intertwined.
What has happened in reality is that my writing has focussed on issues that are important to me (gender, sexuality, Black Lives Matter, migration, consent), or responded to things that have happened – both online and in the physical world – that I felt could be addressed from a Pagan perspective.
It has become apparent that there is not really a roadmap for writing Pagan theology. I think that all the best theological writing assumes and acknowledges that it is a personal reflection on a theological issue, and runs with that assumption. I do not think that theology should be prescriptive. It is more about opening a space for dialogue on theological issues. That is why a blog is the ideal place to host a theological conversation – because people can post comments, or send in a guest post, or write a post in response on their own blog.
Sometimes my posts are just “thinking aloud“, and the comments on them significantly change my thinking about the topic being discussed, or highlight something that I hadn’t thought of.
I think that theology should always be discursive and not prescriptive. It is not up to me to tell anyone what to think – just to open up a space for discussion. I write to work out what I think, and to get feedback on it. I think the comments on a blogpost can sometimes be as illuminating as the blogpost.
