At the beginning of January, I started a series of posts about this blog, how it began and evolved. I wrote three pieces about it, this one, this one, and this one. Then I went to sleep. Maybe you did too. But with Allison joining Frank and me this weekend, and with a new format up and running (spiffy, no?), I think this blog has finally reached a form to stick with for a while. So let me wrap this up.I think I left off with:
Chapter 5 — The Crazy Marine from the Old South Who May Be An Angel or Something
That would be Frank Weathers. As I've written somewhere, YIM Catholic was only a couple of months old when I started receiving e-mail blasts from somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line. When I paid attention, I was vaguely aware that they were from a "retired Marine" living in Tennessee. I figured "retired" meant ancient and "Tennessee" meant too much moonshine. Wrong on both counts.
It turned out Frank was in his mid-40s, very knowledgeable, a convert like me, and a good writer to boot. I asked him to write a guest post and he wrote two, in an hour. About this time (Thanksgiving 2009), I was looking for help, divine or human, it didn't matter. I felt tired writing alone each day and lonely (exposed to my own ignorance and readers' reactions to it). I'm only half joking calling Frank an angel. I'm not sure what his former Drill Instructor would have said and don't care.
The chemistry of the blog changed at once when I asked Frank to join and he agreed. It was fun again, and readers were picking up on the fun. I learned a whole new vocabulary. Frank was "covering my six" as YIMC's co-pilot. He called me "Mav," I called him "Merlin," both "Top Gun" references. And he peppered me with the occasional "Bravo Zulu!" and "dumb civilian!"
Was this why I had started YIM Catholic? Absolutely not. Except that I had come to two conclusions: (1) I had run the table on all the reasons why I had become a Catholic, and (2) if this blog was going to continue it would have to transcend "Webster Bull." I'm not the only Catholic in the world with good reasons to be one.
Chapter 6 — Building a Community
I read a piece on successful blogs about this time. It made several important points. One was, you're better off finding people to help, especially writers. Check, I had Frank. Another point was, build a community. Interact with your readers. Comment on their comments. Understand what they want to see on your blog, or rather what they expect to see from your blog because only you can do it best, then do that.
I think we've been periodically successful sticking to this theme. We still fire off in all directions, and I suppose that's one of the charming things about this space. But we definitely have made friends (and maybe a few enemies), and the friends have formed a community, at least in our own minds. When Warren Jewell doesn't comment—or guest post—for a few days, we wonder where and how he is. When I get up in the morning, I look for Maria's comments, because she seems to be up all night and very often has valuable things to say. We have friends with strange monikers, like Mujerlatina, EPG, and newguy40. I wouldn't recognize any of them on the street, but we'd miss them if they didn't come around now and then.
Blogging takes me outside my parish, outside my demographic, into the Universal Catholic Church (how about that Moses in Malaysia or Rose in India?). Come to think of it, the Universal Catholic Church is probably the first worldwide virtual community, dating to the year 33.
Chapter 7 — Yikes, It's a Girl!
Which brings us to this weekend, when Allison Salerno has agreed to join Frank and me in a sort of unholy trinity of Catholic bloggers who love being Catholic. As the line at the top of this page suggests, this blog sometimes has had the sound and smell of a men's locker room, what with all the towel-snapping and Bravo Zuluing and whatnot. Allison dared to barge in. What a fine writer! She is a cradle Catholic, unlike Frank and me. She is the mother of boys. I am the father of girls. Frank is father to both. We balance each other in many useful ways.
Furthermore, we all agree that there are more than enough Catholic blogs that obsess over politics, and we don't want to be another. We all agree that what we do here is unlikely to make any of us a penny richer, and we agree that we don't care. We agree that we love being Catholic—in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Tennessee, or wherever we happen to be going to Mass—and we want people to share the love. Furthermore, we're all in the Eastern Time Zone.
Personally, I believe that the best thing a Catholic can do to evangelize is not to argue with anyone but rather to pray, go to Mass, aim for holiness, and smile along the way. That's what we seem to be doing here, with maybe some question about the holiness. Hang around, won't you?
FOOTNOTE: Pardon the seemingly presumptous image of the Holy Family at the head of this post about Allison, Frank, and me. No, Allison is not Mary, and I'm not Jesus. But I have learned that you can't go wrong with St. Joseph. May the Holy Family bless our efforts here below.
