I Used To Love...

Blogging… and Social Networking…

I have always been a little streaky with the blogging, but there were many periods of time in which I logged on at least a couple of times every week to share reviews, funny life stories, theological insights, song lyrics, and quotes from my kids. I’ve never had a lot of readers, but I’ve had a few, and the interaction has been fun.

The advent of social networking added a new dimension to my virtual life, and since becoming fully obsessed with facebook, in particular, I have often had a chance to reconnect with long lost friends, send up a prayer for needs I would not have otherwise known existed, offer a birthday wish, and share some pictures.

Lately, though, both blogging and social networking have lost their luster for me…

And the reasoning is kind of sad…

Let me start with a shocking revelation I had today…

If one more person so much as hints at the idea that I’m going to Hell in a handbasket because I don’t fall into the Calvinist/Reformed branch of Western Industrialized Christianity, let me tell ya… I might just give them a very good reason to believe it!

For a long time now, I’ve been planning to write a book (OK… another book). This one was to have its premise in the relationships I’ve had over the years. It was to be a narrative on why I believe what I believe. It was going to be a really fun project. I hope… I really hope… that it still is. But I cannot begin this work without willing participants. I want to interact with other people in this book. I want to challenge those with opposing viewpoints, and I want them to challenge me. And at the end of the day, I want to share a few laughs over coffee… or ice cream… reminisce about the years of friendship we’ve shared… embrace… and walk away still friends rather than hardened enemies who cannot see eye to eye on anything at all. I am afraid to start the project, because I fear that I don’t actually have a relationship with many people who can engage in heated debate and thoughtful discussion without spitting in my face and cursing the ground I walk on. And these are my friends…

But what do I really have to lose, right?

And so it begins…

I am looking for about 12-15 friends to share in a literary journey with me. I want to discuss hot topics. I think I kind of want to fight a little bit. But I want it all to happen very respectfully. I want to interact with people who have actually formed and shaped my life and beliefs as well as with people whose lives and beliefs I have played a part in forming and shaping (if any of these such people exist). I need to interact with people from differing worldviews and belief systems in order to make this an authentic work. And everybody has to be completely respectful, both to me and to the others involved in the project, no matter how much we disagree.

I am going to send “invitations” to this project to some specific people, but I also want to just put it out there for those who read my ramblings and might wish to join in this adventure. I am going to limit this to 12-15 people, as I said, because I want to share a somewhat in depth look into my relationship with each person and how it has affected my worldview. Please don’t feel offended or anything if you’re not “selected”. It may be that I already have somebody on board who fits your particular profile pretty well, and I am definitely striving for diversity here. Still… if you’re interested… let me know.

Here we go…

Again…

Lisa