CLIF FROM A TO Z (B) BLOGS―THE DEATH OF

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Five years ago Tech researcher Gartner Inc. reported that 200 million people had given up blogging, more than twice as many as were active.

They also estimated that 3 million new blogs were being launched every month. Daryl Plummer told reporters, "A lot of people have been in and out of this thing. Everyone thinks they have something to say, until they're put on stage and asked to say it."

I launched my blog, Musings of A Minister back in 2005. For the first few years I faithfully wrote and posted something every day. I felt guilty if I didn't. I rarely missed a day. But as time went on, like so many others I grew weary. I have faithfully posted my book reviews but not so faithfully the every day "stuff" of life.

There was a time when many blogger friends came to my blog on a regular basis. Time has passed and some of them have passed and quite frankly some have just grown tired of the daily routine. I can't complain because I rarely visit them either.

Some of my blogging friends can no longer be found. They have gone away. Still others are have not taken down their site, they just do not post. Visiting their blog is like visiting a ghost town or a shop that has been closed. There is no sign in the "window" saying "Closed For The Season." They are just nowhere to be found.

I have learned that if you are going to be a good blogger, you have to work at it. You can't expect readers to show up if you don't show up. So, I'm back at it. I'm now writing a series CLIF FROM A TO Z. I'm doing this for two reasons: First of all friends have told me this is what they want. They appreciate the book reviews but what they really want is a peek into my every day life. And the second reason is that the letters of the alphabet serve as a launching pad for ideas.

So I go on writing. Blogging is a lot like my life. Slowly but surely my dear friends are passing away. As a preacher I officiated at hundreds of funerals. I  have walked a trail of tears all over the beautiful, cemetery hills of Southern California, fertile but final resting places in Northern California and rocky, sandy, well watered oasis where loved ones rest in Arizona.

Many of my friends are gone. But they are not forgotten. The same with bloggers. I am thankful for each one of them who befriended me, read what I wrote, commented on it―encouraged me.

As the Golden Girls would say, THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND!