The end of July marks a "Jubilee event" in Rome for "Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers" — people who use the Internet and social media to witness to the Gospel, reaching out to all the spaces on the "Digital Continent."
Do I "fit in" here?
There are lots of young people who have taken up this task consciously and enthusiastically. They identify with these terms, and they produce polished, high quality audiovisual content. I have come to "know" some of them (through online communication) and I appreciate the value of what they do. Especially during the Pandemic, they provided "spaces" for connection, often live streaming events for music and prayer that brought quarantined people all over the world "together." Those times were precious, surprising experiences of our closeness within Christ's Mystical Body, even when separated by vast distances.
I am a blogger, I guess. But what am I really doing? I'm a university professor, long "pre-maturely retired" due to debilitating illnesses which I have described many times on this blog. I'm a writer, who sort of accidentally stumbled upon blogging in 2011. Sometimes my blog is my "creative workshop" for material that I'm thinking about or working on (including experiments in photographic and pictorial art). Sometimes my blog is like a little "classroom" in which I seek to do something that resembles "teaching." Not many people read it.
Am I "influencing" anybody?
I'm not a "native" of the Digital Continent. I'm more like a "refugee," who came here after nearly fifty years, because I had nowhere else to go. I have seen the great possibilities for communication, and made use of them as best as I can. I have tried to make a "place" here, rather than taking up a conscious project. A place where I can "be," and open up myself — my mind and my heart — to others who might find me in this place. Here I am: long-winded, awkward, a bit preposterous, melodramatic, sometimes troubled, with a whole lot running around in my brain, and of course the talents and experience I’ve been given. I’m writing about my life as a human person, an incurable intellectual, a husband, father, and grandfather, and someone who benefits from and/or struggles with the many factors of these particular times. I also share what I think are worthwhile resources... and my attempts at art (for what they're worth).
And of course I witness to Jesus Christ. I witness to my hope in Him. What is my life without Him? Yes, I want to communicate "messages of hope and love," the hope and love that I need for my own broken, sinful life — I know that the truth about life, the source of freedom, the reason for hope is the merciful love of God, and that others need Him too. We are all human. We are all created by God, redeemed by Jesus, called to be brothers and sisters.
This is a "digital platform" and I am putting myself "out here" as I am, with my struggles and my hope. I am a witness to hope and love. I have hope, because I have been loved.
I'm not good at interacting with media. I have the old-fashioned habits of a writer — habits that are leftover from the ancient world of print culture, the world of books and journals, magazines and newspapers, the world that Marshall McLuhan called "the Gutenberg Galaxy." But I'm on the Internet and I'm trying to reach people, even if it's just a few people. As for “AI,” I’m not even sure what that is, but it’s here and it’s coming even more… so what can I say? I’ll do what I can with it. Bring it on!
I'm a Catholic Christian human person who has been sharing his life on this blog for — wow! — fourteen years. And I can't help sharing about Jesus. He is the life of my life.
