As the Catholic Conspiracy launches, here’s the 101 on this blog and what I’m doing. You can make a meme out of this if you like, look at the answers and figure out suitable questions for yourself.
A. My name is Jennifer and I like to write. I have sometimes gone minutes and minutes without thinking of something to write, but it doesn’t happen very often. Like maybe it happened ten times in my life? Ever? Okay, minute. Minute and minute.
B. Why no, there’s not a combox. There’s a com-group, and it’s on Facebook. Join in if you like, you need not be Catholic to apply. I’m not always there, but you can be. There are people in the group whom you should meet.
C. The reason I am so sporadic in my internet attendance is because I am decrepit. Sometimes I write about that.
D. My public writing is 99% Catholic non-fiction. This post has a link to my archives around the Catholic blogging world. I am still actively writing at Patheos as well. For links to the books I’ve written and/or and contributed to, look at my publications page. If you’re looking for the free PDF retreat workbook, look at my downloads page.
E. What will the relaunched Riparians be like? Ha. I tell you a mystery. Riparians at the Gate is the non-anonymous successor to my first foray into blogging. When I started writing at Patheos, rather than move everything over, I kept this place around for personal updates.
In coming back here and freshening up, one of my goals is to get back to more personal blogging. Another is to get into Catholic stuff from a different angle than I’ll be doing at Patheos. My final goal is top secret until I pull it off. That’s my thought.
F. People sometimes want to know what the name Riparians at the Gate is about. I will tell you, because that’s your prize for being here on moving day.
- It’s a weak pun off of “Barbarians at the Gate.”
- The word riparian is because of all the -arian things I might be considered, that one is real. Met my husband on a river. Like to relax on a river. Really like rivers. Fast ones, slow ones, but generally prefer narrower ones to wider ones. In a pinch, any good creek will do.
- Unlike some of the other blog names out there, Riparians at the Gate hadn’t been taken yet.
Those are enough reasons for now. Here’s a nice river video. It’s not me. The spouse and I went out and scouted the route on the previous trip, and then I gave my seat to one of my offspring for the recording.
Yes, actually it was scary. A little terror is good for the soul.
G. So let’s talk about visceral reactions.
I got to know Larry D. during our stint doing 3.5 takes, and the photo below is the one I’d use for posts for that. It warms my heart to look at that picture and think about doing a new thing with a pile of Catholic blogging friends who in some cases go pretty far back.
But the photo that totally makes my stomach go happy-wild is this one of our head-conspirator Rebbeca Frech’s daughter Ella getting air at the 2016 WCMX championships. I think if you haven’t really done any mountain biking or BMX or WCMX or something like that, your body won’t be trained right to really feel the thing when you look at the photo. But if you have done the thing, then you’ll look at that picture and your stomach will leap with excitement and you’ll be like, “Oh yeah. That’s what we’re talking about. Bring it.”
And that’s I think what the Conspiracy is — that moment when you’re really in the air with the Catholic faith, and the question of where or how you’ll land isn’t even on your mind, because hey — air time.
Photo by J. Fitz, all rights reserved.