This is just a random post that I've wanted to write for years.
I started this blog at the suggestion of some great and holy women, and I didn't expect that my readership would expand much from that first group of amazing Catholics.
I remember having a great time trying to think up blog names (I'm embarrassed to admit that I almost went with Musings of a Frustrated Yenta!!), and I got really excited when I thought of Little Catholic Bubble. For years after my reversion and finding some of the most amazing friends I could have ever hoped for, I felt positively giddy about what I jokingly referred to as my "little Catholic bubble" of friends. A community that was so fun, so good-hearted, so uplifting and faithful -- I was pinching myself every day. My greatest comfort and joy came from those who loved the Faith as much as I; the support and love and laughter and grace made a soft, safe place to land in a crazy, mixed-up world.
So, with tongue firmly in cheek, I staked my blog title and found a very pretty little bubble photo that made me feel happy! And off a-blogging I went! Wheeeee!
Fast forward five years and millions of page hits, and my cozy little blog has attracted a new and more diverse group of readers, for which I am profoundly grateful. All of you are what make the Bubble "ours", not just "mine", and I think of us as the Bubble Family, Catholic and non-Catholic alike.
However, as with any public blog, there are always going to be detractors, meanies, and trolls. Thankfully, we don't have many here -- we can all pride ourselves on having made this one of the most respectful of the "controversial" blogs out there! -- but occasionally the same old tired digs come up (yawn!):
"Hey Bubble Lady, maybe you should get out of your little bubble once in a while and face the real world!"
"You definitely are in a bubble! Stay there!"
"She's in a bubble so that she can only hear herself and others like her. It's an echo chamber."
"Little Catholic Bubble says it all! Pathetic."
I must tell you that each time someone uses my blog title as an insult, I smile. Because these sad and angry souls don't see the obvious. I didn't start and name this blog in order to hunker down and shut people out. This blog is open to all and engages all ideas. Everyone is allowed to comment and disagree with me or the Catholic Church, and those comments will stand. Everyone who is respectful gets a fair hearing and then some. Everyone is permitted to make his case. (I rarely censor or ban people, and when that happens it's only in response to something truly obscene, or after repeated warnings to the offender.)
The blog's subtitle gives a big clue to the clueless, too:
A sphere of clarity, color and light -- with an infinite amount of room inside!
Get it? It's infinitely large. It can hold everyone. It excludes no one.
All are welcome here!
So, that's the history of my blog title. I liked the name. It seemed fun and playful. I love my Catholic community. I like the thought of bubbles. I found a picture of a bubble that makes me happy. And I love the irony, the subtle little joke of it all, since we are anything but an exclusive, censoring, echo chamber here.
Anyone who can't see that needs to lighten up -- maybe by blowing some pretty bubbles!
(These are some of the original bubble photos I liked, before deciding on "the" photo!)
Love this! One of my dearest friends often refers to her "love bubble" and how it expands the more she gets to know others. Of course it's not exclusive. The bubble grows and grows.
ReplyDeleteQuestion:
ReplyDeleteDo they realize what a bubble even is? A sphere.
A sphere has zero edges, zero corners, zero faces, and there’s nothing sharp about it. A bubble (sphere) is able to contain the most volume even with its very fixed surface area. So sorry to deflate your detractors.
A sphere literally has no faces . So they shouldn’t think of your bubble as a cube, with hard edges, angles, and less capacity for volume; that would be the limit they’re apparently trying to point to. We’re talking about a bubble. Error out.
Why don’t they merge their own bubble of thought here?
What shape do they fancy themselves as living in? Let’s calculate their surface area to volume ratio and see whose shape holds more openness to thought.
Btw: Guess what we get when we mix a bubble to a bubble to a bubble to a bubble….?
Nubby, I always look forward to your perspective! You are one of the reasons the Bubble floats so well!!
ReplyDeleteAnita, I love that!!!
I mean, if they’re going to look at it like that, facts always help.
ReplyDeleteAnd the bit about the LCB being “an echo chamber”:
Everyone lives in a self-imposed echo chamber, so they’re only trying to kid themselves if they’re attempting to make the point that they’re so much more open minded than you.
So, agreeing that we all live in “echo chambers” of our own choosing, the real question is, “Which echo chamber do you live in? I know what I hear, reverberating back to me in my Catholic chamber. It’s always about selfless service, loftier goals for humanity, true happiness, and finding wholeness through constant Divine relationship that never abandons. It never changes. It always encourages. It always strengthens. It always reminds me of the worthiness of people, the worthiness of struggle, the worthiness of my time, my talents, and my treasure.
It always shouts back the truth of a Divine Friendship with a god-man who condescended himself for love. It reflects back the truth that spirit is capable of touching Spirit for true inner transformation of the person, and ergo the whole world. It echoes truths about healing, grace and power that meets me right where I’m at, amid my awfulness or excellence, if there be any.
It echoes logical and spiritual paradoxes of truth that this world, in all of its aching stupidity, will never understand but those who desire to know will be given the gifts of Faith, Knowledge, and Wisdom (to name a few), to know. It reverberates back to me the ages of intellectual wisdom in all the academic disciplines, birthed and upheld by the Church and her members. It holds up gleaming examples of heroism in the face of evil. It shouts to me, ‘Look at where I came from, walk with me where I am going, and trust me until the end! My love will see to it! My love never dies!’
Anyway, what kinds of messages are you getting from your cultural echo chamber, sister?”
And here I thought the title was because you went to a carnival and had one of the vendors make up one of those bubble-head figures of you, that you punch once in a while when the crazies bug you too much.
ReplyDeleteOr is that a bobble-head figure? Oh well, whatever. I'm glad you are here, and that your bubble has expanded. May it never burst.
I'm a newbie here, but I think spam is funny. I moderate all comments on my blog and approve them before appear. Not because I censor people, but because I want to keep SPAM off my blog.
ReplyDeleteLike you if a person disagrees or has helpful criticism I will publish their comments. I will not publish things that are clearly spam. My blog readers don't need to check out whatever you are selling.
I haven't had people be critical of my blog title, but I have gotten emails, through my blog, that insist I need to be saved. I agree I need to be saved, but not in the matter they implying.
Nubby, that was so good that I put it on my Facebook page! Bravo!
ReplyDeleteDNBA, aw, thank you my friend!
Nikki, welcome! :)