When I started this blog nearly two years ago, I was looking for a way to vent — to articulate the frustration and outrage overflowing my heart and mind.
The story that set me off in the summer of 2005 was Joseph Duncan, but there have been hundreds of stories since — many of which provoked Polimom in one way or another, and some that drove me right off the rails. Like Katrina. And New Orleans.
In the past 21 months, I’ve written well over 1,000 posts on this blog (and many more on others), and I’ve virtually befriended hundreds of people. We’ve discussed, debated, disagreed, supported, argued, and worried about politics, the Middle East, race relations, criminal justice… everything’s been fair game.
Lately, though, something’s different — at least on my end.
Take today, for instance. The blogosphere’s trying to clean itself up, a well-known personality has stupidly blurted something racist, Iran’s defying the UNSC, there have been more bombings in Iraq, New Orleans is struggling to rebuild.
Sound familiar?
The headlines have begun to blur, and all of them could have run a year ago… or yesterday… or tomorrow… The sense of déjà vu has become overwhelming.
Not only do I feel like I’ve already read all these stories, I’ve already written about them — many times — and Polimom just can’t seem to raise the emotion required for inspiration any more. I’ve gone numb, I think, from the unrelenting bad news.
More than that, though, is the self-imposed sense of obligation to read, and write about, all these depressing subjects. Somehow, I’ve internalized the bizarre idea that I have to write, because people expect it.
How silly is that?
Obviously, it’s time for a break — to write about something different for a while. Unfortunately, I don’t know yet what that’s going to be.
It may be that Adorable Child’s journey into adolescence (dragging her unwilling parents along, kicking and screaming) will provide the necessary inspiration, or perhaps this (very steep) photography learning curve will engage my mind; or possibly I’ll just pull the plug on this blog and relaunch something altogether different.
Whichever way this goes, though, it’s time for Polimom to have some fun again. I can’t promise that you’ll be entertained, but I can guarantee that I will be.
And once upon a time, that was the whole point of the exercise.