Blogging...connection or distance?

We have just recently entered into the blogging world here at Calvary UMC; it has been made particularly popular this summer on our mission trips, first the youth in Alabama/New Orleans and then the Brazil team in Fortaleza, Brazil. Everyone loved being able to follow the team, hear the stories from different people, and see photos while the experience was still going on, not just at the end, when you have to sit through a slideshow with 300 photos at once.

I still have not gotten into the blogging fever in daily life. I can see why people would want to read this while I'm far enough away that you can't get me on my cell phone, but it seems at least a little presumptous to think that I might have something to say or write that people would bother to read (or dare I say it, even WANT to read) daily or weekly.

My generation is all about self expression. We are about connecting with other people any way that we can, and nowadays, we often do that electronically. We could have the debate about whether this is good enough. Are we too distant and cold? Does the use of email and telephone take away the personal touch that a visit used to have? Are younger generations unable to have face to face relationships because they are accustomed to the safety of solitude in front of a computer screen? Perhaps. Or maybe it is just different. We are connected now in ways we never could be before. I can find and touch base with people from a million different worlds of my life, from my childhood in Missouri, from my high school years in Richmond, from our recent trip to Brazil...all of these "friends" can be on my facebook page, and could respond to my blog, most likely if I make them laugh, cry, reminisce, or feel angry.

We long to be connected. We long to belong. We long to express the stuff that is happening inside of us. And yet, we are often afraid to do all of these things, because we might get hurt in the process. We could be abandoned. We could be ridiculed. My generation longs for intimacy while at the same time, being absolutely terrified to jump in that deep and be that vulnerable.

And so, technology offers us the opportunity to connect, to share these deep thoughts and questions, albeit in a more impersonal outlet. At least it is an outlet. It is a release. It is a beginning to the conversation.