My subscription copy of the 26 March Commonweal has arrived....

.... and it has letters about the St. Blog's article in it, including one that's a bit humorous from Kathy Shaidle, and one from a gentleman who'd probably label me a raving dissenter, for, after all, I subscribe to Commonweal and link it in the sidebar.

Now that it's out, I'll not be undercutting our valuable Catholic print press by posting what I wrote to them:

Re: St. Blog's Church

I was very pleased to see your notice of that piece of the Internet known as "St. Blog's Parish" (though a little shocked to see my own name in it!)

I don't think it is quite fair to the real world to call us "vibrant" because though many of us write well, any actual vibrant, life-nurturing, faith-supporting things that might come from that will take place in real-life cities and parishes, not at St. Blog's of Bloggsville.

Bloggsville is a pretty wild place, and it has no cops yet. So there are some pretty wild public places full of street-corner speechmakers and people screaming "the end is nigh," but also residential neighborhoods and quiet coves and clearings. There are sites from which I feel deprived if I can't visit them daily, and other sites I dare not get near, they'd be near occasions of wrath to me. The news sites vary wildly in quality; no editors means there's good immediacy, but no fact-checking, so it's reader beware. Also, at certain news sites, what's written in the comments boxes is often more insightful, or more inflammatory, than the site itself is.

I started my site, back in May of 2002, because I was frustrated at the often inaccurate content and the attitudes of bloggers about a particular local crisis, and I thought there were things that needed saying, by someone who actually lived here, and they wouldn't be said unless I did it. By the time that particular crisis had been resolved, my little place on the net had become established, and I found I had more I could write about than just reactions to crisis, and my site has survived.

To tour St. Blog's, start with the list at http://praiseofglory.com/blogs.htm , "Some Catholic Blogs." When you find a blog you like, check out the left or right margin, where you'll usually find a "blogroll" of sites which that blogkeeper likes, or at least finds interesting. Soon you will have your own list of places worthy of regular visits. I'd hope one of those places might be mine; you all would certainly be welcome.

peace and good,
Karen Marie Knapp
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
"From the Anchor Hold", http://kmknapp.blogspot.com/
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