We cannot escape ourselves...…without each other and God

The difference between some bloggers and others is that some of us are born and bred journalists. We know that blogging days are numbered and we want to get in as much of the Truth on line before we are stopped by powers that be.

Singapore now demands that bloggers get and pay for a license. Nancy Pelosi stated months ago that bloggers were not real journalists and, therefore, most likely, did not received the respect or the rights of "real journalists."

But, we are real and we do have freedom and rights as of now.

But, there is another killer of blogs and that is ennui. Ennui can be caused by discouragement, or cynicism, or just plain being physically exhausted. Some bloggers have "turned in the towel" in order to pray more, be more silent in their days, or just concentrate on other things.

Some of us pray and meditate better, as Newman said of his pen, with a laptop on our laps.

To meditate or even pray better when writing is a sign of a vocation. One can be called to write and one can love the tools of writing.

When I was a child, in pre-computer days, I literally loved my crayons, markers, pencils, pens, pencil and pen cases, paper of all kinds and so on. A sign of a vocation is the love of certain tools.

The builder loves and respects his tools, so does the teacher, or the surgeon. Priests love their altar ware and vestments, if they are good priests.

Remember the Star Trek Bones bragging about his tools and degrading 20th century methods in the hilarious Star Trek IV?

But, when ennui sets in, one gets writer's block, a real deal, not a myth. Writer's block comes when one, like Psyche facing her chores in order to win back Cupid's love, sees a mountain of work, or data, and one feels overwhelmed with life, the universe, and everything.

I had writer's block for about two months in the middle of my doctoral thesis at Bristol. It was a terrible experience. I was just getting out of it when my advisor fell so ill, he could not continue working with me.

Blocks can be emotional, physical, even spiritual. The physical blocks can be overcome with more sleep and good food. The emotional can be overcome with reason, and the spiritual with prayer and sometimes, fasting.

Accidie was the common sin of the monastics, a sort of sloth brought on by the monotony of life in a monastery.  Accidie is defined as  "a state of restlessness and inability either to work or to pray" in the OED.

Aquinas and others call it "sorrow of the world". It is a serious condition, which like the ennui described by the Existentialists as a listlessness, a tiredness of everything, a world-weariness, can lead to the deadly sin of sloth.

There is only on cure for this and that is the remembrance of the duty given to us in baptism as well as the call to be part of the Church Militant given to us at confirmation.

We do not have the luxury for ennui or accidie. We do not have the time for slack.

I pray for all bloggers who have worked so hard for years and may be discouraged.

Here is a thought for you and for me: we are all in this together and we need to pray for each other.

Ephesians 6:18Douay-Rheims 

¹⁸ By all prayer and supplication praying at all times in the spirit; and in the same watching with all instance and supplication for all the saints: