On the 2nd Anniversary of This Blog

     I don't know—are 382 posts a lot for two years?

     Considering that I spent my first few blogger months in a veritable frenzy, writing the history of my monastic vocation and my musical background, and that I've posted almost every poem I've written since 2005, I suppose 382 doesn't seem like an outrageous number.

     In the first year, the most viewed posts were those concerning monastic life, and particularly those about my visits to the Abbey of Regina Laudis. Given that the Abbey's prioress, Mother Dolores Hart, former Hollywood actress, is the most well-known cloistered nun in the country (along with Mother Angelica), this is no surprise. And now that Mother Dolores' memoir has been published, those posts have had a resurgence of hits in recent months. But there are obviously many women in the world who are discerning a religious vocation or are simply curious about religious life, and they fine-comb the internet for anything about the subject, so my monastery-related posts get hits every day. I'm very happy about this, happy to help in any way I can to encourage those who have felt a call to the religious life, especially to the cloister.

     The more popular posts in the second year have been those dealing with "Niles Crane's Greatest Lines." Again, not surprising. But I think it highly amusing that the two "poles" of this blog are monastic life and Niles Crane. Which is why there is no longer a brief description of this blog under the blog's title. I tried to put one up there, tried various versions, then just threw up my hands. Any first-time viewer can simply look at the page categories at the top and scratch his head trying to figure out what the focus of this blog is. Well, there ain't any. I write whatever comes into my head, and I have many interests in life, which is why this is called "A Spectrum of Perspectives."

     That brings us to poetry. I used to have a whole other blog devoted to poetry and music, and yet another devoted exclusively to reading, but I chucked both of them as superfluous. Why not, I thought, just pile everything onto this one blog and make it even more confusing and unfocused? Sadly, for me anyway, the poetry posts are the least viewed—except for two: Regret and A Sonnet of Sonnets (revamped). These two posts are, astonishingly, the most viewed of all 382. I have absolutely no idea why, especially "Regret." I mean, I've written some depressing poems in my time, but that one takes the proverbial cake. Maybe the painting by Ajvazovskij has something to do with it. Now, with "A Sonnet of Sonnets," I can sort of see why. It consists of love poems that are easy to understand and that many people can readily identify with, as they deal with unrequited/unprofessed love. I truly believe the world is starving for old-fashioned love poems. Still—beating out Niles Crane in page views? Who'da thunk???

     At any rate, I'm very, very grateful that anyone at all reads my random ramblings. (Hey—maybe that's what I should have called this blog!) I hope I can keep you all interested enough to keep reading!