All good things must come to an end.
This website has been in existence since January of 2003. It’s fourteen years old. That’s a lifetime in blog years, where the average age of a personal blog is said to be a whopping 100 days. When it turns fifteen next January, it will be time to consider its long-term fate. Before that, however, I’d like to to try out a couple of possible avenues before we move into the autumn and winter of this website’s journey.
Lately, and you’ve probably noticed as well, it feels like this place has been on auto-pilot. A morning post of (hopefully) some substance, a noonish post of filler and frivolity, and an evening post of some shirtless/naked/nude flotsam. Of late, I’ve been too busy (and yes, some days and nights, too lazy) to make it to all three posts, opting instead for two, and both rather lame at that.
I’ve also been pre-programming posts for when I go on vacation or leave town for the weekend, which takes away the timely import of the thing, and connecting in an approximately real-time manner is what makes me feel part of something.
But it’s tiring, and it’s a lot of work, and the last few months have revealed that I value my life off the internet far more than anything that goes on here. A few minutes basking in the glow of summer sun, or hanging out with friends, or simply watching my niece and nephew splash in the pool – are worth more than the last ten years of writing these posts.
I’m not ending this blog anytime in the immediate future, but I intend to take a break – a summer sabbatical – as suggested by my webmaster and friend Skip, whose wisdom far exceeds mine in such matters. He brought the idea up as we were traveling to Boston, and it’s something that I’ve given some thought to for a while. The idea of stepping away somehow, not just from this blog, but from the social media world which has occupied so much of my time is an appealing one. Maybe it’s the season of summer, when all I want to do is sit by the pool and read a book and not be bound to phone or laptop.
When faced with the quagmire of possibility involved in taking a break, it’s best to keep things simple, but also leave room for change and evolution. It also gives notice that this blog may not last forever, and I’m putting the idea of ending ALANILAGAN.com into the universe to discover what may manifest when I open myself up to new options. Maybe someone has a better idea of what can be done with this space – I’m open to any and all suggestions.
My initial thoughts are to leave for the last half of July, all of August, and return in September. A summer vacation, like when we were kids. And then, upon my return, a lessening of the three-posts-a-day schedule I’ve maintained for the past few years, and the ease of not feeling obligated to post something every single day. That’s a grueling schedule. I’ve been posting 364-days-a-year for over a decade – it’s time to re-enter the real world.
Does it mean I won’t come back if something noteworthy enough happens? No – I‘m open to doing a quick visit should there be a new Madonna song or President in the next two months, but I’m really looking forward to not being connected, not being on my phone, not having the continual pressure to post in the background of everything else that’s going on. That’s no way to live anymore.
I’ll keep you posted on the development, and I promise not to pull an Irish goodbye on anyone (much as I’d like to exit without fanfare or notice). There will be a proper farewell-for-now post. We deserve that. In the meantime, a few more lazy posts to come before I go… and a few you won’t want to miss.
