Why I Blog: Many Conversations

Last updated on: April 26, 2009 at 8:01 am by Cat Chapin-Bishop

Why I Blog: Many Conversations 2009-04-26T08:01:00-04:00 Cat Chapin-Bishop

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

After a post I made not too long ago, I found myself reflecting on the kinds of comments I was hoping it might provoke. For those of you who might not, yourself, blog, let me simply say that this is one of the main differences between blogging and other forms of writing I have done; while all writing has an audience (if only the voices within an author’s head) in blogging, the audience writes back, usually within a few days of a piece’s publication. There really is an element of conversation to blogging, that’s absent from other types of writing. The original post informs the comments, that inform return comments or entire new posts, that inform new comments, and so on.

For me, the back and forth of this conversation, particularly with Quakers from a variety of places on the Quaker continuum, has had the effect of deepening my Quaker practice far beyond where it would be had I not found myself in the midst of this conversation. I’m not putting down the Quakers I know from my meeting, nor the quality of the adult education and spiritual nurturing I’ve had there; I think I’m very fortunate in the meeting I attend. However, there’s something about the completeness with which a written thought can be communicated that can take written words deeper than most face to face discussions are ever allowed the space to go.

So a written conversation, with Friends from all over the world, has been a great gift to me.

Something similar happened to me, not around worship or ritual, but around Pagan scholarship, at the time Chas Clifton invited me to join something called the Nature Religions Scholars listserve. In the wider Pagan community, I have been honored for the part I played in helping Cherry Hill Seminary get off the ground… Neither of those parts of my life as a Pagan would have happened without the written conversation with Pagan writers and teachers like Chas, M. Macha NightMare, Fritz Muntean, Brendan Myers, Michael York, and Gus DiZerega. Both Cherry Hill and that listserve have evolved beyond me at this point, but my gratitude remains; the give and take of readers and writers took me a long, long way to becoming whatever it is that I am.

The Quaker blogosphere is different from that, however, in that Quaker readers and writers often do a particularly good job in stirring, not just intellectual growth, but spiritual deepening. As I blog, I often have the names of particular commenters, Pagan and Quaker, in my mind–the way the faces of members of my meeting rise up for me in Quaker worship sometimes. And when they respond–especially, when my Quaker readers respond–I often find myself challenged in ways that lead me deeper into a kind of worshipful writing… and, I think, deeper into worship generally from week to week.

Quaker blogging almost seems like a mutual ministry to me. Or is it that the comments from many Quaker readers are a kind of eldering? In any case, the comments nurture the Truth that is latent in my words, and draw it forth.

It feels wonderful.

A seasoned Friend and minister in my meeting told me last year that she thought I had a “budding gift for vocal ministry.” And maybe that’s so, and maybe it’s not… but it does feel as though there is something in my writing that is a budding ministry.

(I admit to feeling a bit pretentious in saying this. I also worry that by naming a gift with traditional Quaker language, I’ll actually distort it rather than let it become whatever odd beast it is meant to be. But it seems relevant today, so I’ll trust my readers to take my words for however much or little they are worth.)

One thing that you may notice, as you read this post, is that I have spoken almost entirely of Quaker readers, and a kind of Quaker idea of ministry. But I have two audiences in this blog, not one: Quaker and Pagan. (I think it says some pretty good things about the open-mindedness and sincerity of my Pagan audience that they are willing to wade through as much Quakerese as I put up here in order to encounter whatever relevant insights there also are for Pagans in this blog!)

This crossed my mind, as I was thinking about the blog the other day. I began to wonder–is Quaker Pagan Reflections really a Quaker blog, fully and entirely? Do I actually have a use for my Pagan audience at all? For a moment, thinking purely of the one blog post I had just completed, I had an eerie sense that, no, Quaker Pagan Reflections was no longer a Pagan blog at all. It was a startling revelation, and a bit sad, but it seemed perfectly clear.

However, in talking about it with Peter I realized that I was wrong. It is not that I no longer write for my Pagan audience; it is that I write with different concerns and different needs to my Quaker and my Pagan readers.

I am still in an early stage of vibrant growth as a Quaker. The blades are still green and the grain is yet unformed on the stalk, and I am taking in nutrients from the Quake world as fast as I can process them. So I often write “Quakerwards” with a palpable hunger for what feedback I will receive.

But I am about as mature a plant as grows in the Pagan orchard today. I don’t say I have nothing left to learn: after all, even if I were fool enough to believe myself the wisest Pagan alive, the gods would still know more than I. But that first, demanding stage of growth, all about the taking in and taking in of new knowledge and insights… that passed in the mid 80’s sometime. (If I’m ever inclined to forget when that era was, all I have to do is look at the publication dates on my Pagan books. I was one voracious little reader, back in the day!) And when I write about Paganism, I am either writing about the past, the period of rapid growth I once went through, or I am writing from my perspective of today, as a Pagan elder and teacher.

From Quakers, I have much to learn.

To Pagans… do I have much to teach?

Well, it may be that I do, judging by the traffic from other Pagans to this site. By the way, I don’t at all mean that my teaching is of the sort of a high mucky-muck to a humble newbie; the Pagans who stop here and leave their comments are either “weighty” or “seasoned” Pagans (to borrow some Quaker jargon) or are on their way to becoming so. Instead, I think a good part of what I offer my Pagan readers is something that Quakers are pretty good at (though less good, maybe, than they wish to be): mutual nurturing and eldering by peers.

With its emphasis on mysterious, charismatic leadership, Pagans have largely missed the boat on that. As a group, Pagans suck at collaborative eldering and support for one another as we grow. We are lousy spiritual friends and mentors to newcomers, too often preferring to impress them with our drama and our importance… and we are lousy peers and elders to our leaders, too often losing our way in hierarchies, Witch wars, or turf squabbles. The result is that we lose too many promising newcomers, or see vibrant new developments in the Pagan world run exclusively by and for new Pagans with few or no ties to seasoned members of the community. And we lose too many of our best–folks like Deo and Mandy of Deo’s Shadow–not, I think, to our lack of critical thinking, but to our lack of spiritual support systems for those who find themselves in positions of leadership.

Children, we can’t be having with this!

Seriously, I think I am discovering that my purposes in writing this blog are many. I think that, in addition to what I have to learn from Quakers, I have some few things to teach, too: things about plain speech that can involve humor, for instance, or about how the silence of waiting worship was never meant to drown out truth telling and intimacy on a human scale outside the worship. And I think that I will continue to learn from my Pagan peers and teachers, too, things about communities that may get lost in our passions from time to time, but do not purchase an easy semblance of peace through passivity and silence.

I think I blog because I love to write, and because the comments from all my readers provoke me to think harder and feel my way more deeply into my subjects. I’m motivated by my own need to learn and to grow, and by my own hunger for community.

But I think I may also be standing in this cross-roads for a reason. It’s not theology that I want to share–with the possible exception of the peace testimony, there’s not much of Quaker theology I feel a need to evangelize about, and as important a message as the sacrality of Earth is to Pagans, I think Quakers are receiving that message loud and clear from other messengers than me. But there’s something about community, about connecting with and loving one another for real, that the two groups have to offer one another. I can’t put it into words, excactly.

So I think I’m just going to stand here in this crossroads until the words come to me. And then I’m going to write them down… for all my people to read.

IMAGE CREDITS:
Conversation, from Western Governors University
Crossroads Image courtesy of Free Photo.com

Uncategorized

Previous Post

April 22, 2009

Peter on Fixing Public Education and the World

Next Post

May 5, 2009 Fame

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Cat's posts Peter's posts Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2017 February 2017 November 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 July 2013 June 2013 March 2013 February 2013 December 2012 November 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 July 2000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz