Those of you who have been around St. Blog's for a while know that I absolutely love numbers. I love what they say and what they don't say.
Let's take a look at the recent Catholic Blog Awards. There were sixteen categories. Look at the relative number of votes in the various categories and you'll see an interesting trend.
The absolute lowest number of votes (1022) occurred in the "Most Devotional Blog" award category. I suppose this is meet and fit as St. Blog's would not want to disturb those of us nominated from our lofty contemplations by the stampeding roar of voter's feet. Then we have "New Blog" at 1284, and "Most Creative" at 1293.
That 300 fewer votes occurred in the "Most Devotional Blog" is significant. It implies that St. Blogs parishioners are even more afraid of devotional things than they are of New things or Creative things.
How can we eradicate devotiophobia? I'm uncertain, but I do know that it is the next crusade. Next year, people should be more afraid of New things than of devotional things.
Of course, perhaps it is the fearsome thought of disturbing God's intimates that keeps the droves away. Or perhaps St. Blogs is wise enough to realize that "sleeping dogs" and "rapt contemplatives" belong in the same category of attentions. Disturb a rapt contemplative and you'll probably get an earful of something that as Samuel typified it, "He sure talks a lot and I don't understand a thing he's saying. . ."
So my campaign for next year is already outlined--get more people to vote for devotional blog than for one other category. Penultimate next year, as for the future--Ante-penultimate and beyond--the sky's the limit.
Steven:
You're failing to account for several factors that affect the number of votes, chief among them nominated blogs directing their readers to go vote.
Since no self-respecting devotional blog would direct its readers to go vote, it is to be expected that "Most Devotional" got the lowest vote count. (This factor also explains the vote count for "Best Blog By a Woman.")
Dear Tom,
Alas, perhaps you are right!
But I prefer to reflect upon the sheer terror that we contemplatives strike into the hearts of the quaking populace. After all, isn't that the reason for being a contemplative? :-)
shalom,
Steven
"He sure talks a lot and I don't understand a thing he's saying. . ."
Hey, I resemble that! :-)
and here I thought it was that the folks who read devotional blogs are wary of seeming to belittle any one of them by voting for any other of them. Much easier to belittle political commenters, clueful newbies or the oddballs among us.
It also might be that people have difficulty judging between devotional blogs. I don't frequent much of St. Blog's, but I would have a difficulty voting for the "best" in a category that clearly is subjective and strongly related to your particular devotional style.
Gosh Guys,
Does this mean you're telling me that contemplatives and devotional people don't scare the socks off you? Gee, I thought I had it nailed!
shalom,
Steven
You mentioned that you love numbers -- I happened to see the book review today and couldn't help but think of you: http://tinyurl.com/l5cus
Jeff
Devotionalism (is that a word?) - except among those who actually want to be devout - is not as exciting as argument, controversy and complaint. The latter are also easier to pull off.
Congrats for coming in, um, in 2nd place. To be honest, we were surprised at being nominated as Most Devotional and actually winning, especially since almost everyone who knows about our blog shares an ISP with at least 25 other friars/nuns and our families seemed to have forgotten to vote!
I'm still trying to figure out how we are "devotional"...we told Bro. Lew over at Contemplata allis Tradere that HE was devotional!
God bless you!
The Sleeping Dogs of the Lord (domini-canes)
I was so confused by the voting process that I eventually gave up - not knowing whether or not my vote had even been registered. It looked like you could only vote in one category at a time on the ballot, not fill in all the ballot and then vote en masse. I am pretty sure that my first few votes registered, but I got tired and frustrated before voting in all categories.
There's also the point that I, and I'm sure many others, don't do our devotions on the web. I don't have anything against devotional blogs, but when I go blogging, it's usually for discussion, news, and fun, not for devotion.