Thursday, November 06, 2003

Kinship

Rachel Cunliffe asked me in a comment to unpack the word kinship. I had said that reading Rachel's blog I didn't feel a kinship.

I tried writing this once with the lead line -- "Kinship has to do with overlapping lives in areas of keen interest." But after several paragraphs that seemed like a horrible definition.

Kinship is a gut feeling that I would enjoy having a cup of coffee with this person and that we could talk all afternoon without becoming irritated or bored.

Some bloggers bore me. Not that there stuff isn't legitimate or important. It just doesn't interest me. Too much info about personal life, too many issues that don't concern me, ... don't do much for me. This doesn't necessarily mean they are boring, just that it doesn't interest me.

Some bloggers irritate me. Too much anti-war stuff, various ranting, passion that can find no one worthy, poorly thought out arguments, cussing, ... put me off.

A kinship is harder to define than I thought. There has to be a mutual respect. There is probably a strong correlation to stage of life and generational issues. These seem pretty strong in blogging kinships.

Though if you looked at my offline kinships, you'd find a broad range of thinkers and lifestyles. They are almost exclusively men, but not completely. That isn't a theological issue, more practical.

As I look at my blog roll, there are three categories --

1. Famous blogs -- Jordon Cooper -- he's just plain interesting almost every day.

2. Kinship blogs -- Jon Reid, Darren Rowse, and John Porcaro -- I feel some relationship with these guys. We communicate via email some, not a ton, but some. And I enjoy reading their blogs -- relevant, not boring, not irritating. Maybe Rachel and I are forming a kinship right now. That would be cool.

3. Hopeful blogs -- Alan Creech. I could feel a kinship here. My expectation is that if we don't start some communication outside the blog that he will fall off the list. Not a threat, just a likely reality. On the other hand, he could become famous.

In my Other Blogs list, they are all Famous Blogs, but the kinship is weaker or they don't update very often.

How would you define kinship?

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