hannah and caroline and me
(part forty-three)


it's christmas eve as i start banging away at what, according to current form, may end up being my last blog post of 2010. i hope not, but things have slowed down on HACAM in the last three months. Not intentionally, mind you, but life has happened, facebook continues to happen, and an alarming (-ly wonderful) lack of drama related to the church also continues to happen.

this will be the first time in six years that the blog's post count drops, and i am not sure how i feel about that. i suppose it was bound to happen. until the day comes when someone starts paying me to piss "you" off, i will have other things that must be prioritized over writing about my girls, my church, auburn's quarterback and julio jones. last year seemed to be the perfect storm of subject matter (for kevin o'kelley). in 2009, of course, the girls continued to grow, mature, annoy and fascinate. towards the end of last year, i started wrapping my head around the idea of having "had" cancer (note: started being the operative word. until i am proven wrong again ((please, lord, let me be proven wrong again)) in january, i am still worried constantly about bad cells growing into something badder inside my body. i wrapped my head around the idea long enough to start writing about it, which was cathartic. alabama football did their thing in the last third of the year. they performed above already high expectations, recaptured my imagination, and won a national championship. rolando mcclain won the butkus. mark ingram won the heisman. julio made it all possible. 2009 was a banner year for subject matter, yes it was. and then along came facebook.

if there is one thing above all others that has contributed to the post count dropping in 2010, it's got to be my more active involvement on THE social network. i stuck my toes in the water last year, just in time to reap the facebook birthday wishes benefits, but, this year, i just went ahead and dove on in. quick-hit topics or links that i may have given attention on the blog in 2009 went straight to facebook. it was easier that way to get a quick response and gain a conversation about those topics. one of the downfalls of the blog was/is that, in many instances, by the time a friend found their way to a post on HACAM, the subject was old news. with facebook, if something strikes my fancy and i want to talk about it, i link to the story and go. i had never experienced gratification so instantly, and it was terribly rewarding. at the same time, though the blog may have lost out in quantity, in my opinion, it's probably gained in quality. the posts that now make the cut have often festered for days to some degree, and some of the fat ends up being trimmed away. i am interested to see if this trend continues in 2011, or...

will i start to tire of facebook? i don't know. it's a good question. i am still a relative facebook newbie, and i am still a huge fan of the footprint it's made on my life. i talk with people that i would never have more time for than to say "hi" or "bye" to. i can passively pay attention to long distance friends and relatives without intruding into their lives any more than "like"ing a status or telling them that their family is beautiful based on the pictures they post. i have fallen in love with the good-natured debate that i've found on topics that have reached some level of import in my life. on the other hand, i've found it interesting to observe those friends and "friends" that have started to fall out of love with facebook. they have claimed that it has taken up too much of their time, that they are too dependant on it. others have claimed to just plain hate it. others have remembered the "good ole days" when it didn't include status updates and wish for a facebook that is never coming back. a less commercial, a less farmville-y, a more innocent facebook. a boring facebook. those people that have given up on the facebook will likely claim that their life is a more fulfilling place without it. and it may be. for now. for ever. who knows. all i know is, right now, i like it. one of my 2011 resolutions will be to gauge, this time next year, if i still feel the same.

humc still gets it's share of love in the land of HACAM, but the lack of drama or controversy since bishop-gate has almost been unsettling. we are in a very serious and deserved phase of transition at this point, one that calls for less talk and more action. the natural church development process is hoping the third time ends up being the charm. the long-range planning committee still searches for our vision. and yet, something still feels...i don't know. i'll explore it more here after the new year. for now, we'll enjoy the relative peace and hope that's it the quiet before the storm of growth...if...that's even what is supposed to be happening.

it's been yet another quite a year. i'll inventory my 2010 resolutions soon and see how miserably i failed at them.

see you soon. i gotta go check facebook. (winking smiley)