On Tuesday of this week, both Stand Firm and TitusOneNine linked to Wounded Bird. No, I'm not giving links to their sites. I was amused that the name of my blog was not mentioned. The links simply said go "here".
The links were to Bishop Charles Jenkins' most recent letter to the members of the Diocese of Louisiana, which I had posted, but which was not yet online at the diocesan website. The folks at SF and T19 did not much care for Bishop Jenkins' letter, and the posts and some of the comments were quite negative. In fact, I was somewhat startled by tone of the posts, but especially by some of the comments.
The upshot of the linkage was that I had the largest number of visitors to my blog ever. They broke my record which had been set with my post on my trip to Mexico, which included the flag of Mexico at the top. For some reason which I could not fathom, the flag attracted many visitors to that post.
I wrote to another blogger after I read the posts and comments, because I was somewhat concerned about all the visitors from those sites. The other blogger, one of the top-tier religious bloggers, told me that the visitors were a good thing, because there are always lurkers reading the blogs, and that perhaps, some of the lurkers were undecided and persuadable on certain controversial issues. That made sense to me. So I welcome all visitors from now on.
Anyway, judging from the numbers, the excitement is dying down, and I'm getting back to normal. No one from either blog left a negative comment about the letter on my site.
No chance of my succumbing to pride over the numbers, since the popularity of neither post was attributable to anything that I had written.
Thanksgivings that you weren't beaten up in the process of receiving all these visitors.
ReplyDeleteI am glad YOU didn't get all those nasty comments!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your reasserter success. Don't see any sign of an email from you, unless you're the "Mary Brown" who posted the message beginning "Big Busty ....", which I rather doubt is the case.
ReplyDeleteLet me know when to go ahead and I'll post my office email address here. It's the address I use most of the time, in any case. Roger (LB).
Lapin, I am not Mary Brown. I sent two emails to you, and neither was returned. They went somewhere. You can post your address again, if you like, but I'll be gone for several hours, in case you want me to delete it after I copy it.
ReplyDeleteI'll wait till I see that your back. Roger
ReplyDeleteThe folks at SF and T19 did not much care for Bishop Jenkins letter, and the posts and some of the comments were quite negative. In fact, I was somewhat startled by tone of the posts, but especially by some of the comments.
ReplyDeleteWhen your identity is established by your boundaries, what others think or do determines who you are, and that is a distinct problem.
When your identity is centered in who you are, what others do is of no importance. So the Desert Fathers retreated to their cells, and St. Teresa of Avila wrote of the "interior castle" where the presence of God was found.
I remind myself of that from time to time; which is to say, most of the time.
The crazily fluid and often non-sensical world of blogging! One site leads to another and another. As in this case, by content specifically but not by spirit.
ReplyDeleteGo figure.
Grandmere you clearly have some connector energy in and around you.
Which is generally a beautiful thing!
Sic transit gloria mundi!
ReplyDeleteLapin, I'm back.
St. Teresa of Avila - "Interior Castle"
ReplyDeleteConsider our soul to be like a castle made entirely out of a diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in heaven there are many dwelling places. For in reflecting upon it carefully, Sisters, we realize that the soul of the just person is nothing else but a paradise where the Lord says He finds His delight. So then, what do you think that abode will be like where a King so powerful, so wise, so pure, so full of all good things takes His delight? I don’t find anything comparable to the magnificent beauty of a soul and its marvelous capacity. Indeed, our intellects, however keen, can hardly comprehend it, just as they cannot comprehend God; but He Himself says that He created us in His own image and likeness.
Rmj, thanks for the reminder.
Couldn't happen to a nicer blogger, I say.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tim.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention St. Teresa. I really started reading her in college (Way of Perfection, Interior Castle), and was always amused by her comments that she was "praying for the Lutherans." I'll take all the help I can get!
ReplyDeleteP.S. I only get more "hits" when Madpriests links to me because Scout isn't well. My dog is much more popular than I am!
ReplyDeleteOff topic again, but you started it by quoting "sic transit ...", which reminded me of watching the televised - grainy, black-and-white - coronation of John XXIII in 1958. It was the last of the pre-Vatican II "triumphalist" coronations - the huge, fat triple tiara; the works. The only part I distinctly remember is the new pope being carried through St Peter's in the sedia gestatoria - the portable throne that lifted him to shoulder length, with the great ostrich-feather fans behind it. The procession stopped three (I think three) times and at each stop a length of flax was burned in a candle flame before the pope's face, as someone chanted - and I hope I have my tense right after all these years - "Patre Sancte, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" - "Holy Father, even so passes away the glory of the World". A a very impressive liturgical moment.
ReplyDeleteDiane, you can't have too many prayers, whatever the reason, right? ;o)
ReplyDeleteLapin, I was a Roman Catholic back then, attending a Jesuit university, and I don't remember all that about John XXIII's coronation. You have a real eye and ear for the details of pomp and circumstance
I was in my mid-teens, when things stick to the mind as to fly-paper - would that they still did! Although almost all of my mother's family were RC's, we were not, so the coronation was all rather strange and wonderful. That is the only bit I remember. On checking, it is "Pater Sancte ...."
ReplyDeleteDear Grandmere -- OT, but I think you'll understand. Thanks for pointing out that George Hacker was wrong on Iraq before we did the crime, so is not perhaps the person to look to for advice now. I thought about saying that, but decided to try to add value with some links.
ReplyDeleteOdd post that we both responded to. :-)
Jan, I couldn't let that go. Good that he's changed his mind, but let's not take his advice.
ReplyDeleteActually, I did not know that was you. Great minds and all that....
Mimi:
ReplyDeleteI need to ask absolution for two of the sins you mention: (1) the pride of my numbers, and (2) the envy of yours...however ill-gotten they may be!
Queer, I'll give you absolution. You are forgiven.
ReplyDeleteIt's odd that not one of the visitors from either site left a comment. Perhaps even they would have qualms about attacking a grandmother.
In that case they should read OCICBW, hah!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, thank you for your comments to Tobias' amazing post on "Pro-Creation." If I may say so, those fellows are conversing on a level best left to my seminarian partner, but you and I managed to add a little more soul to the discussion, too.
Well, OCICBW is the exception. I think MadPriest doesn't know what a qualm is.
ReplyDeleteI amaze myself that I dare to post comments on Tobias' blog. Those folks are so very learned. You and I stand in for the simple pew-warmers, and Tobias is unfailingly gracious.
I find that I learn a lot by hanging around people who are smarter and more knowledgeable than I am.
Really though, they're not all so smart. When stupid arguments go up, Tobias demolishes them pretty quickly - but in such a nice way.