{"id":4567,"date":"2021-01-28T20:58:51","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=4567"},"modified":"2024-12-13T18:44:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T18:44:25","slug":"after-a-dozen-years-something-sort-of-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/after-a-dozen-years-something-sort-of-new\/","title":{"rendered":"After a Dozen Years, Something (Sort of) New"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/apathy-angst-and-grenfell-tower\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20180320ff\/20180604-ApathyIsRampant-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I started &#8220;A Catholic Citizen in America&#8221; on September 16, 2008; as a Blogger blog.<\/p>\n<p>Time passed.<\/p>\n<p>By 2016, I was having technical issues with Blogger.<\/p>\n<p>Then, in May of 2016, the service&#8217;s zeal to protect users and viewers from a particular image file format gave me the last straw.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s when I decided to re-launch &#8220;A Catholic Citizen in America&#8221; as a WordPress blog. Which I did, finally, a few months later:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/one-saturday-afternoon-in-minnesota\/\">One Saturday Afternoon in Minnesota<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(July 2, 2016)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><a name=\"experiencing\"><\/a>Experiencing Technical Difficulties<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/norski.deviantart.com\/art\/Meet-Norbert-Nerdly-578736560\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/201508ff\/20151218DontAskMe-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n(Norbert Nerdly: my frustrations, personified. (2015))<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/temperance-catholic-style\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160505ff\/20160502800px-DemonRumLeadsToHeroin-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a>Then, somewhat later, I got around to the post I&#8217;d been working on when Blogger became more trouble than it was worth.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/temperance-catholic-style\/\">Temperance, Catholic Style<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(July 10, 2016)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Not quite two years later, persistent technical issues were back.<\/p>\n<p>Not the same technical issues, but frustrating nonetheless. My son, over the course of a few days, traced my problem to the household router. Technically, the solution was simple: get a new router. Financially, not so much.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/2411-2\/\">In Conference, Out to Lunch, Gone Fishing, Whatever: I&#8217;m Taking a &#8216;Break&#8217;<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(March 26, 2018)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/technical-issue-march-26-2018\/\">Technical Issue March 26, 2018<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(March 26, 2018)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But eventually I got back to more-or-less regular posting.<\/p>\n<p>Which brings me to what I&#8217;m doing here. Back again, that is. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/time-and-talent-what-am-i-doing-here-and-why\/\">January 27, 2021<\/a>)<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"back\"><\/a>Back to the &#8220;Vocation&#8221; Thing<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/patriot-dreams\/#patriotism\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20190630ff\/20190630-439714_2007-trim-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Recapping what I said yesterday, I&#8217;m a Catholic layman: a member of the laity. That&#8217;s my vocation. Narrowing it down, which I didn&#8217;t do yesterday, I&#8217;m a married Catholic: so being married is my vocation. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p2s2c3a7.htm#1601\">1601<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p2s2c3a7.htm#1617\">1617<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Part of it, at any rate. I didn&#8217;t talk about marriage as a vocation yesterday and I won&#8217;t today: partly because I also didn&#8217;t talk topics I pick for writing, either.<\/p>\n<p>And that, more or less, is what I&#8217;m doing today.<\/p>\n<p>But first, here&#8217;s what I said I&#8217;d be doing with the first iteration of &#8220;A Catholic Citizen in America,&#8221; back in 2008.<\/p>\n<h5><a name=\"whats\"><\/a>What&#8217;s it Like, Being a Catholic in America?<\/h5>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;About 300 million people live in America. Roughly one out of every four is Catholic. And one of them is me.<br \/>\n&#8220;You&#8217;re not as likely to meet a Catholic in America as you are in Mexico, Poland, Kenya, or the Philippines: but odds are pretty good that you know one, or that someone you know does.<br \/>\n&#8220;We&#8217;re Hispanic, white, black, American Indian, Asian, and quite a few other ethnicities.<br \/>\n&#8220;And we&#8217;ve been here for quite a while. Baltimore became the seat of the first American diocese in 1789: and the first archdiocese in 1808.<\/p>\n<h6><a name=\"following\"><\/a>&#8220;Following Catholic beliefs and practices in America: One man&#8217;s experience<\/h6>\n<p>&#8220;This blog is about my experiences as a practicing Catholic living in America. My values are somewhat counter-cultural, so following my beliefs in a system that isn&#8217;t built around them can be challenging.&#8221;<br \/>\n(&#8220;A Catholic Citizen in America,&#8221; first post (<a href=\"https:\/\/catholiccitizenamerica.blogspot.com\/2008\/09\/whats-it-like-being-catholic-in-america.html\">September 16, 2008<\/a>))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Not quite eight years later, I&#8217;d been writing about science, history and whatever else caught my attention.<\/p>\n<p>Along with how I saw the topic(s).<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m still not sure whether I should be focusing on &#8220;my experiences&#8221; more than I have been.<\/p>\n<p>An &#8216;up&#8217; side is that what I write would be more obviously consistent with the &#8220;A Catholic Citizen in America&#8221; description: &#8220;Following Catholic beliefs and practices in America: one man&#8217;s experience.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A &#8216;down&#8217; side is that my everyday experiences are not all that fascinating. Not from where I&#8217;m standing.<\/p>\n<p>My routines are, well: routine.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"now\"><\/a><em>Now<\/em> What Do I Do?<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/not-feeling-information-overload-or-loss-of-identity\/#noise\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20130220ff\/Carnabotnet_geovideo_lowres-329.gif?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a>I&#8217;m not a teen idol pop superstar YouTube influencer \u2014 someone who can post &#8220;I #flossedmyteeth #lol:&#8221; and get a million hits, making a quarter-million dollars by doing so.<\/p>\n<p>Not that anyone&#8217;s quite that redolent with newspaper fame. Or Internet fame.<\/p>\n<p>And I might not enjoy getting that much attention. I&#8217;m pretty sure that others in the family wouldn&#8217;t like it. At all.<\/p>\n<p>I was going somewhere with this. Let me think.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This blog&#8217;s first and second iterations.<\/li>\n<li>What I&#8217;d planned to do, what I actually did and a cheese sculpture.<\/li>\n<li>Cheese sculpture? Never mind.<\/li>\n<li>Focusing more on me, but staying interested.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Right.<\/p>\n<p>For a little over a dozen years, I&#8217;ve known what I&#8217;ll be writing about next: whatever catches my interest, and looks like it&#8217;d be worth the time I&#8217;d spend researching it.<\/p>\n<p>I plan to keep doing that. Which is why I&#8217;ll be getting back to the current &#8220;Dr. Faustus&#8221; post, after a cup of coffee: and that&#8217;s another topic. Topics.<\/p>\n<p>But I also plan to keep doing these &#8216;journal&#8217; entries, focusing more on me and what it&#8217;s like being a Catholic in my here and now. <strong>How<\/strong> I&#8217;ll keep doing them, and make them worth writing and reading, is a good question. But, again, that&#8217;s my plan.<\/p>\n<p>And now, the seemingly-inevitable links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/time-and-talent-what-am-i-doing-here-and-why\/\">Time and Talent: What am I Doing Here, and Why?<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(January 27, 2021)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/another-wednesday-reading-wondering-and-writing\/\">Another Wednesday: Reading, Wondering and Writing<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(January 20, 2021)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/not-feeling-information-overload-or-loss-of-identity\/\">Not Feeling &#8216;Information Overload&#8217; or &#8216;Loss of Identity&#8217;<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(November 6, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/november-3-the-end-of-civilization-as-we-know-it-again\/\">November 3: The End of Civilization as We Know It (Again)<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(November 2, 2020)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/the-masked-minnesotan\/\">The Masked Minnesotan<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(June 12, 2020)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I started &#8220;A Catholic Citizen in America&#8221; on September 16, 2008; as a Blogger blog. Time passed. By 2016, I was having technical issues with Blogger. Then, in May of 2016, the service&#8217;s zeal to protect users and viewers from &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/after-a-dozen-years-something-sort-of-new\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[213,215,223,192,209],"tags":[13,27,12],"class_list":["post-4567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-a-writer","category-being-catholic","category-creativity","category-journal","category-series","tag-blogging","tag-history","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-1bF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4567"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4576,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567\/revisions\/4576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}