As many readers know, the content of my blog is anything but focused. So I was shocked when someone offered to buy my Website.
I immediately thought about what I have written over the year. Rifling through the archives, I found posts about ghost encounters, an interview with a fictional reptilian from Star Trek, a remarkably handsome long haired fellow ranting about Vibram Five Fingers on a YouTube Video, some silly jokes, a few Podcasts with too many sound effects, and even crappy poetry.
I have, of course, slanted all my content and media for this blog toward barefoot running and what it means to me. But I must admit that some of my “popular” content was written with keywords and search engines in mind. I used the keywords as a writing prompt–similar to the way I write sonnets, I start with the end rhymes, then write the lines. I never published anything that I could not spin into a worthwhile post. As you can tell, I speak my mind and I do my best to be transparent and honest about my affiliates–even going so far as write “shameless affiliate plug” next to affiliate links.
The offer to buy my Website forced me examine the blog. Looking at it, I realize that impressions and affiliate income isn’t my main goal. I want to express myself and I don’t want to box myself into writing posts from a list of keywords. I HATE blogs like that and I HATE how dirty SEO has rendered Google and other search engines useless.
It’s time to get uncomfortable; it’s time for a change. I started it off with an ultra conservative haircut. And I’m continuing it with this blog.
The disquieting truth of life is that everything is transient. People, pets, prizes,and possessions sparkle bright in the darkness for a bit then fade away. There’s something that seems inherently sad about that. Buddha said that the pain of impermanence/transience arises from attachment. We cling to the world, our lives, our relationships, our families, our possessions, and accomplishments. We expect them to remain present, predictable, and permanent. They aren’t. When the earth rumbles and land beneath our feet sinks, we scream and claw at crumbling dirt instead of floating into the Great Abyss.
It’s odd that I find myself compelled to shake my personal universe, to write about my personal life, “to explore strange new worlds, to seek new life and civilizations, to boldly go where no barefootedly written split infinitive has gone before.”
Since I don’t always wear shoes, barefeet will stomp through my posts. But on the whole, the writing for my blog will not be as instructional or as heavily “barefoot runner”; instead, it will shift to the “life” part of “barefoot runner’s life”. I will, from time to time, write how to posts or offer tips about running without shoes as learn them. And I will also preserve the content and media that I have already produced. I hope you continue read. I hope you comment, and I hope you become a new friend not only in cyberspace, but also in real life.
May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you live with ease.
–Valen
