Skip to main content

Focus




Inevitably, whenever I tell anyone I write a blog they always ask me what the focus of my blog is. I scrunch my eyes and mumble that my blog doesn’t really have a focus. It is eclectic. Yes, it is. One week I may write about science fiction. The next week it may be Biology. The next week it may be about writing. Another week may be about art, and on and on. I haven’t exhausted the variety of topics yet. It truly is a mixed bag. I write about whatever I feel like writing about for that week. There is a down side to that. It is not the best way to build a following for my blog. Many bloggers write to a single focus. There are food bloggers, travel bloggers, style bloggers, book bloggers etc. These bloggers often have a dedicated following of people who are interested in that topic and subscribe to one or more of the blogs that speak to that topic. Why order a combination pizza if you are only interested in the pepperoni?

That being said, I am not planning on changing. I have done all right for readership. Some people are interested in a combination pizza. And for those who aren’t, that’s okay too. This isn’t about winning the biggest audience. There is one topic that I have mostly steered clear of however, and that is politics. That is not because I don’t have strong feelings about politics; I do. I express those feelings on other platforms. It seemed to me that my blog was not the place to express politics because everybody has strong feelings about politics now. You can’t express an opinion on either side without starting a war. We have enough battles going on over the internet; we didn’t need one more. So, I have (mostly) avoided topics that ventured into the political fray.

There are some topics that shouldn’t be political but some small-minded people (perhaps with foreign prompting) have chosen to make them political. Like, Wearing a mask during a pandemic. You either wear a mask, or you are a selfish ass. Period. Why has this become political, can anybody tell me? Another topic that shouldn’t be political is racism. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of racists in America and they do wield some political clout. Let me put BLM in simple terms: you either believe that black lives matter, or you believe that black lives do not matter. There is no third option. If you say all lives matter, then you had better be ready to accept the statement that black lives matter. (Black lives are part of all lives. Do the math). And if you don’t accept the first option, then you believe black lives don’t matter and guess what, you are a racist. Racists used to hide in the shadows, or stay with their own kind. Now they are out in the open. Mind you, racists hiding in the shadows wasn’t necessarily a better situation, but at least they were not providing role models on a big stage. All the leaders of the major parties should unanimously let the racists know that they are not welcome here. This is not their country. It’s a no-brainer. This shouldn’t be a political issue.

Here’s the thing about politics, as worked up as we get about politics, it only takes one major life event for you to realize that politics doesn’t matter squat. So, back to where I began; my blog has no focus. All topics (except politics) are fair game. Deal with it.

(My science fiction novel Star Liner, is now available in paperback or as an e-book through Amazon and other online sources).


Link to Star Liner

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove

  Despite both of us having science backgrounds, my wife and I share a leaning toward the artistic, though we may express it in different ways. In her life, my wife has been a painter, a poet, a singer, an actor, and a fiction writer. Not to mention a mother. I don’t remember what precipitated this event, but my wife, my son, and I were at home in the front room. My wife was responding to something my son said. She said, “remember, you get half your brains from me. If it wasn’t for me, you’d be a complete idiot.” To which my son started howling with laughter and said to me,” I think you have just been insulted.” Sometimes I feel like Rodney Dangerfield. I get no respect. But that is not an uncommon state of affairs for fatherhood. When my son was going to middle school and high school, my wife was always the one to go in with him to get him registered for classes. One time she was unable to go and I had to be the one to get him registered. “Ugh,” he said. “why can’t Mama do i...
1 comment
Read more

Empathy

  Websters defines Empathy as: “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.” Empathy is what makes us human, though lord knows there are many humans who don’t seem to have any. A person without empathy is like a caveman, only concerned for himself. Selfish. It is a lack of community and by extension, a lack of the need for civilization. The person who lacks empathy can have a bit of community, but only with others exactly like himself. It seems like societies go through cycles of empathy and less empathy. Sometimes a single event can change the course of society. Prior to America’s involvement in WWII, the general feeling in America was not very empathetic. We had our own problems. We were still dealing with the lingering effects of the Great Depression, and had been for years. That kind of stress makes it hard to think of others. Hitler was slashing through Europe. He and his fol...
1 comment
Read more

A Deception

  I have a secret. I deceived my mother. Okay, it was like 50 years ago and she is gone now, but still . . .  I was generally a good boy. I did as I was told. My family lived a pretty strait-laced, middle-class, fairly conservative life. We were a G-rated family, well, until my older siblings broke the mold, but at this time, I was still in the mold. My friend Rich and I made a plan. Rich had asked me if I wanted to see Cabaret . He said he didn’t think much of Liza Minnelli, but he wouldn’t mind seeing her take her clothes off. We were like 13 years old and sex was ever-present on our minds as much as it was absent in our households. Cabaret was not rated R. It was rated PG. The ratings system has changed since that time. There was no PG-13; there was just the choice of G, PG, and R  (X was not an official rating).  Apparently the makers of Cabaret satisfied the ratings commission enough to escape an R rating, so it was PG.   There was therefore no law or ...
Post a Comment
Read more