The Vacant Sandlot

A number of good bloggers have either decided to pack it in for good or to go on a long-term hiatus; Jeffrey Collins and Ben Domenech have gone into hiatus lately. Others will go weeks without posting; Hokie Pundit's been gone all this month, Ganns Deen has been AWOL since May.

I may wind up taking a few days off here and there (for instance, posting will be light this weekend as we're off for a wedding, but posting's often light for me on the weekend with more couple time and less I-time) but I've not had an extended stretch of not wanting to write. This has become an intellectual and emotional outlet for me, something that's rather addictive; when I was Internetless in June, I wasn't a happy camper.

There's part of me that remembers back to the summer between 9th and 10th grade, where I was still in hang-out-at-the-sandlot-and-play-baseball mode and my peers had moved on to driver's ed and more teen-aged matters. I'm not sure if I'm using the blog as an immature means of communications and community; or if not immature, something different that what the other "kids" are up to. I never did become a girls-and-rock-and-cars teenager, preferring games and good conversation.

I see the blogosphere as an ongoing asynchronous conversation; my intellectual playground. During the dog days of summer, a lot of kids are on vacation, and I miss them.

Comments

[Rob]

I've been thinking about bloggers' hiatuses (or is it hiatusi?), too. From the way some of them comment it is apparent that a kind of burnout has struck (see joyfulChristian's farewell of a couple days ago). It is easy to see how spending an inordinate amount of time keeping up with blog feeds and then composing and posting comments about certain ones of them can eat into work and leisure and family and devotion time. If one can't balance all that with some sense of well being (as you appear to do), a breaking point can present. I found myself taking almost a month away from blogging. It wasn't by design; it just lost its appeal after a few days. But eventually the attraction and enjoyment returned, as now has the feeling that I must make at least one or two posts a day or I'm not meeting my quota. It's a little scary.

[Bene Diction]

I found Ganns.
He's back.:^)
An Australian blogger noticed what you've noticed. Their winter is our summer and we North Americans take time away from the computer while our friends in the southern hemisphere are on posting and looking for good conversation.

You've been around longer than most of us Mark and I'm glad you've decided to stay. Blog on!