Blogging in Sin
Friday, March 20th, 2009
Kierkegaard wrote that the ability to practice silence is an art and that to be silent is to be nothing, and otherwise perfect before God. How the written word fits into this concept is not directly addressed in his essay, The Lily in the Field and the Bird in the Air, but it can be deducted that any dialogue a person creates, whether spoken or in some other format, is not the quiet that will open a path to God’s kingdom. So I’m wondering if, by his definition, blogging is a deterrent to the after life. My first instinct is to say yes, but why dispassionately agree with a great philosopher?
A fundamental concept to blogging is to post frequently on topics whether they warrant further discussion or if to call attention to ordinary items that might warrant a deeper look – a second glance, perhaps, from another perspective. Subject matter aside, bloggers create dialogue at times because words need to be added to the page. They may take stances on subjects merely to have a stance, not because the issue bears any real significance to them. An audience is following their work, enjoying their opinions, and in turn the opinions become more frequent and not always the hills on which they might prefer to die.
Though the thoughts I post here are genuine, I apparently violate Kierkegaard’s principle in the material I write on occasion. I am not keeping silent. I am not nothing and more than likely not destined for a life beyond this one. I am writing for practice and to develop a voice – a loud one – that will hopefully be listened to as greatly as the words make their way out from my fingertips.
My speech has lesser grace, a lesser capacity for eloquence and I’m not as capable to deliver words so far as I can with the written kind. The ability to use words adeptly in the modern era is a dieing ability, we are told. While voices aren’t being silenced, they aren’t being heard either. The creation of social media outlets, blogs and other informal electronic web formats, we are often told, are killing grammar, punctuation, language and with them another greater danger. Is it that people are struggling to put thoughts and what they really feel in their hearts into the world in a meaningful way?
It isn’t likely that those who haven’t learned to speak well we be suddenly moved to complete silence, as attractive as that option might be for the rest of us. Luckily, it’s the fools who offer frequent opinions, who cackle pointlessly like farm hens, and perhaps it’s those individuals who will be faulted to after lives in kingdoms other than Heaven. I can only hope that the Creator accepts me for who I am, the talent I have, and for creating some love among the people in this world for the creatures he set on the planet to decorate it just as lilies do on a mountainside.
