You know you've arrived in blogdom when:

Hmm. I suspect that if Mark Shea ever links to ECR, it will be in one of his weekly Lidless Eye showcase posts. Does that count?

naah, you are not a lidless eye type - you are just on the very conservative end of orthodox Catholic belief and practice.

Yes, Jeff, if you were among the Lidless Eye Crowd you would have nothing to do with Alicia, Pansy, and me -- discussing breastfeeding and childbirth in public! The immodesty!

Am I the only blogger who seems to get a plethora of comments on the postings that are the most trivial and least important?

On my blog, an off-the-cuff complaint about the immodest attire of my Weather Pixie generated more discussion than a planned online discussion of the Lord's Prayer, where I practically begged for comments and participation.

By the way, (and I hope my sense of humor comes through here in this written format), but your Weather Pixie looks as slutty as mine does tonight. We ought to introduce them to each other.

Thanks, ladies, you're great company for any Catholic. And the breastfeeding and childbirth stuff makes me feel right at home.

Nevertheless I wouldn't mind being classed as a Lidless Eye by Mark Shea, since I think he means to undermine certain traditional beliefs and practices by constantly holding up their most absurd carciatures.

Chris -- no, you're not alone. Anytime we try to Be Serious and Write Thoughtful, Worthy Blogs on Important Topics, the comments boxes are empty. The things that really light up our comments are things like beer and rhubarb. So we just play to our strengths.

Dear Chris,

Peony is correct. Every time I post something remotely serious--a discussion of St. John of the Cross, whatever, the silence that falls is deadly. It's like people are sneaking in to sit in the back pew half-way through Mass. There have been a variety of explanations for this, but one that resonates with me is that if something is well-said and true, there's very little to say in response save , "Amen." So don't take it that no one cares or is listening, it's just that when the truth hits hard people don't quite know what to say about it.

shalom,

Steven

And if "having arrived" means being party to some of the appalling comments box flame wars that Mark and others end up hosting, I hope we never, ever "arrive."

Dear Jeff,

I have noted the Mark Shea syndrome as well. During a time when Disputations and Flos Carmeli were both actively engaged in an ongoing discussion--Mr. Shea posted a link to Disputations but no acknowledgment whatsoever of the other half of the conversation.

I don't really take it as a slight--one has little time to go to everything that is out there; however, it does seem on occasion that there is a kind of deliberate blind-spot to certain portions of the Catholic Blogworld.

shalom,

Steven

Oh, the fact that he has blindspots in the blogosphere don't bother me a whit. Like you said, we all have them: who can pay attention to everything and everybody? But on the traditionalist side -- which we would expect Mark Shea to be watching closely since he has so much to say about it -- he sees only SSPX/CAI/TIA on one extreme and those who merely "prefer" a traditional liturgy on the other. He misses those in the middle who, in full communion with the Church, both worship in the traditional rite *and* promote historic Catholic norms of belief and practice while engaging (rather than dismissing) the current magisterium. I can only surmise that this "blindspot" of Shea's exists because it is not so easily carciatured.

I hadn't looked at blogtree since my old blog. I didn't realize I had a blog-child. I just hope he doesn't show up at my door need financial support.