Drafting

When I get an idea for a blog post, I don’t necessary write it immediately. Maybe I don’t have time. Maybe I’m still wrestling with exactly what to say or what my position is. Maybe I’m not sure I actually want to follow through.

If I’m not going to write the post immediately, I generally save the idea as a draft and let it cook for a while. Maybe I’ll pick it up later, maybe not. Sometimes it sits there for a long time until I’ve lost interest in the topic or it’s no longer relevant. Other times I finally figure out what I want to say and publish it a few days or weeks after the original idea.

In case you want to peek behind the curtain, here are some ideas in my drafts folder that might or might not actually show up here someday:

  • Standing in a Canoe – My struggle to cling to Jesus when there’s so much that doesn’t make sense to me. Unfinished because I’m not sure you guys want to read it.
  • Girl, Look at That Body – Different people prefer different body styles in the opposite sex (swimmer, average Joe, bodybuilder, runner, lots to love, etc.). It would be an interesting topic for discussion and would lend itself nicely to a large photo gallery. However, with so many people dissatisfied with their bodies, I fear it would do more harm than good.
  • Why I Am (Mostly) a Flaming Liberal Christian Freak – How can I not publish something with a title like that? I’ve actually written much of this one already. It includes Biblical reasons for my support of most liberal causes. But I’m trying to be less divisive. =)
  • Mainlining – A look at the mainline Christian church, a broad umbrella for the Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and other groups who are neither Catholic nor evangelical (Baptist, Church of Christ, Assembly of God, charismatic, etc.). As a group, mainliners are shrinking, due largely to their refusal to proselytize aggressively. But their beliefs generally align better with my own. My buddy Keith (webmaster at BagOfNothing.com) thinks like I do, and he feels more at home in his new Presbyterian church.
  • The Wrong Side of History – In many generations, our society changes its views significantly on one or two major moral issues. In the mid-1800s, it was slavery. In the early 1900s, it was women’s suffrage. In the mid-1900s, it was racial equality and women’s rights. On each of these issues, the majority that preferred the status quo eventually became the minority, and later generations always came to view the old perspective as wrong, backwards, and shameful. The majority wound up being on the wrong side of history. I believe the issue today is gay rights, and that those who continue to support discrimination against gay people will eventually become the minority and be viewed as wrong and embarrassing by my children’s and grandchildren’s generations. Again, since I’m trying to be less divisive, at least for a bit, I’m holding on to this idea for now.
  • Bring Them Home – I had this idea for redoing the lyrics to the Les Miserables song “Bring Him Home” to address our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. But then I actually read the original lyrics and realized that yeah, it wouldn’t really work that well. I need to just delete this one.
  • Preventing Breast Cancer – With the recent controversy over mammogram recommendations, Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen, I got to thinking about why we focus so much on detecting breast cancer and so little on reducing the preventable risk factors. I just haven’t taken the time to do the research for this one.
  • Moving My Cheese at Southwest – I wrote this one in anticipation of a new job I was hoping to get. I wound up staying where I was, but I can’t bring myself to delete it. Maybe I’ll just post it anyway as a joke and confuse everyone.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief peek behind the curtain. If you’re dying to read any of these, please post a comment. I might be persuadable. Thanks as always for visiting.