Real Live Preacher, anonymous for 18 months, announced his true identity this week: Gordon Atkinson, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas.
But the bigger revelation to me was that last week he announced he was cutting way back on his blog. He’s got a huge (by my standards) following: 1500 readers per day. And yet this has become a problem for him.
Right now I find that I am a little too concerned with the comments and the whole “blog thing,” whatever that is. Try to imagine that you are a regular guy who suddenly finds all these people having such strong reactions to your writing. Honestly, what would you make of it? I’m still trying to sort out how I feel about all this. Pride is always a danger, of course, but right now pride is not the problem. For some reason obsession, fear and depression are the wolves at my door. I have no idea why this is. It’s one of the things I want to know about myself. Also – and I’ll say this simply and leave it at that – my wife needs me right now. And I need her. Blogging can take over your life if you’re not careful. I want to be careful and not let that happen.
The past couple of weeks I’ve had my civic hat on quite a bit in my hometown of Northfield, moderating an online forum on local issues, taking photos of community events, blogging, etc. It’s satisfying because I’m making a contribution to the civic health of the town and of course, I get occasional kudos. But it also connects me to townsfolk and as a bit of introvert, I like the way it happens.
So while I have pangs about neglecting Real Joe, and would like to have Atkinson’s traffic problem, I’m aware of what I could lose if “success” in its typical trappings came knocking on my door. My civic hat is one that would likely be tossed aside.