Thursday, June 22, 2006

Blogging UUA GA 06: Love letter to the Chalicesseurs

Hello,

Just got out of a beyond fabulous blog meetup hosted by the UUA technology folks. It was deeply moving to be around so many people I've come to respect and adore in the UU blogosphere.

In one of the opening scenes of the new X-Men movie, you see Magneto (mmm... troubled) and Dr. Xavier getting out of a car and talking lightly as they walk up to Jean Grey's house. I have seen the first two X-men movies several times and am really fond of these characters. As I sat in the theater watching these two guys chat with such obvious fondness and respect for one another, I was shocked to find a well of affection for them inside me. For fictional old guys with super powers.

Blog amigos, meeting you guys gave me the same feeling. Hafidha looked gorgeous and I totally missed the chance to tell her how much I love her stuff. I confessed to Clyde that his symbol of genocide post changed the way I looked at the St. Louis arch from the moment I first saw it.* I got to yell "Great Principles" at Dan Harper, who of course gave props to Mr. Crankypants. And tell Jess that I loved her hymn reviews. And tell Ministrare how much he rocks and that I don't really link to him much but I totally respect him and I think he's a great writer. I got to put names to faces, discovering that there are UU bloggers who are way cuter than I'd pictured them.

It amazed me how deep my affection for the people in this room was. Mid-meeting, I found myself wondering "Do these people really care what a 28 year old wiseass thinks about every little thing?" (If you found yourself asking the same question, I totally apologize. I did talk too much.) But I looked around and people were looking at me with thoughtful faces. What I was saying mattered to them.

I guess that's why I write this. I put my poorly-copyedited thoughts out there on faith that what I'm writing matters to somebody and everytime I check my hits I am gobsmacked to find that I was right. (At the same time, I want to be right again tomorrow, so I really put a lot of thought into what I'm going to write and how best to express whatever's on my mind. If the Chaliceblog starts to suck you will leave. I never forget that.)

And what other people write matters to me. I read every comment this blog gets and it is against my personal blogging philosophy to ban commenters. (Yes, even that one.) Someone commented recently that he's finding UUpdates less useful because of the sheer volume of stuff on it. I've realized that I don't feel that way because I read UUpdates so often I almost never get behind. I visit a whole ton of UU blogs on an almost daily basis, and I'm only going to get worse having met the people responsible for some of them. I do not control my blackberry, it controls me.

OK, I'm starting to sound pathological here but you get my point.

Whatever we're doing here, I think it rocks.

Thank you for being my fictional old guys with superpowers.

CC





*Item: In going to fetch that link from Clyde's blog, I discovered that a lady I went to church with is now commenting on Clyde's blog. This is kinda trippy. I get that it shouldn't be, but it is.

3 comments:

fausto said...

Darn, I wish I could be there with the rest of you.

Joel Monka said...

What fausto said!

LaReinaCobre said...

It was great to see all of y'all, too, CC; thanks for the report. I would have stuck around longer during the milling around period but I had another event to attend. Plus, the lighting in that room was *really* bright! Looking forward to Peacebang's dinner. Where was Peacebang, anyway?