Q: what got you started blogging?

Two Bloggers, after Norman Rockwell

HE'S A BLOGGER, I was told. Bemused, I made a mental note to see if Google could help me with this new piece of slang. Who or what was a Blogger? Google came up with the goods, of course, and by 2006 I'd joined a worldwide online community, and I've never looked back.

The idea of a largely private and pretty much personal journal was what appealed at first. And then the contacts grew, the sense of connectedness that is so much a part of my theology and life-practice. And I found I was learning something new and invigorating most days. And that I often wanted to contribute even just a little something into the world's conversation, and just see what happened.

So today I'm a dedicated Blogger. The daily writings of people I'd previously never have dreamed of having contact with are a welcome widening of parochial boundaries. Bloggers are listeners, and the fruits of their written labours amount to a silent speaking. A deeper poetry. Thinking of William Stafford's "Listening" for the umpteenth time this week:

" ... the walls of the world flared, widened ..."