"We can't come to the internet right now, but..."

Mark Shea reports that when Amy Welborn is off for a few days, "I begin to get nervous emails from people wondering if she's alright and what might have happened to her." If there are two people who are mentioned in any English-language print article or broadcast on "Catholic blogging," it's these two. Now, I've met them both, and they're both fine folks. They try to make an honest living getting a message out. But honest to God, people, if those two decided to shut down their blogs tomorrow, hundreds of individuals would be staring at their computer screens wondering to themselves, gee, where do I go to comment now???

There's a lesson in all this somewhere, and I hope I don't have to be even less charitable than I am already by coming out and saying it. Mark has mentioned how "people get the notion that, for example, Jimmy Akin and I are drinking buddies who are constantly scheming to create an 'Apologetics Oligarchy'..." (Oh, to be a fly on the wall for that pub gathering!) I've even had people write to me complaining about some sort of pecking order in the Catholic blogosphere, where a cabal of three or four authors pretty much keep the rest of us in line. For the record, I don't hand an envelope with unmarked bills to a couple of guys in double-breasted suits on Mark's payroll. As to Amy, I'm surprised that anyone raising children, especially small children, is able to be on the computer for five minutes without somebody needing a diaper changed, a nose wiped, or goodness knows what else.

Amy? Mark? My advice to you two kids??? When you link to someone else's story and have little else to add (which is always a viable option), turn your comments box off for that post. It'll keep a few people on their toes who could use the exercise, it would "share the wealth," so to speak, and you could still head to the beach with the family without all hell breaking loose. Don't worry, they'll still buy your books, and I for one would still pay good money to hear either one of you speak.

As to the rest of you, people behind the message do have lives, and occasionally they get up off their keisters to live them. Speaking from experience, it's not a bad idea.
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