Diapers, Patheos, and Blogging

The Past Week in Michigan I have been on essentially what amounts to a cross-state tour. A wedding, friends, family, and Michigan adventures have kept me been busy, busy, busy. Therefore the blog has suffered a bit.

Most sadly, is my stumbling out of the gates project: The Saint Scholastica Society. I had planned on announcing the first order on the 1st, but because of the wedding, and limited time and internet access where I was, I just couldn't do it justice. I tried to have it all scheduled prior to the date, but ended up changing a few things and it just wasn't where I wanted it to be. I'd rather put something off than quickly post it...

Patheopians (tm)...

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Which brings me to another point. The way we blog. This has been on my mind a lot lately because as some of you may know, The Crescat, Mark Shea, and now the Bad Catholic - Marc Barnes have all recently announced that they are moving their blog to Patheos, and getting paid. Now - for some this doesn't matter in the slightest, while for others there is outrage and anger. Let me explain why I think this is so.

Some of you may know the whole "Cloth Diaper vs. Disposable" debate/war/obsession. (You might be able to substitute this analogy with breast feeding vs. bottle feeding, but I think it breaks down a bit.)
For those that don't let me sum it up: Cloth Diapers came into the mainstream again with the advent of two things: etsy and Bum Genius. Now, I will probably be attacked for my lack of Cloth Diaper recent history knowledge for this simplistic explanation, but what essentially happened is that Cloth Diapering went from pinning and mess, to moisture wicking fabrics and snaps. Cloth Diapering literally became almost as easy as disposable diapering, and when you added in the cost savings - voila! Instant success. Then, you add a bit of "Green" thinking to the equation and the next thing you know, you have Attachment-Parenting, hippy, crunchy, baby-wearing parents everywhere going nuts for them. And when I say nuts, I mean getting people together for flash-mobs on the Today show to get earned media coverage. Needless to say, Cloth Diapering moms parents are militant about it. Now before you accuse me of attacking them, I am one of them. If you wan't to know more about cloth diapering, look me up on etsy and pinterest. No seriously, I dont have accounts there, but you can email me.

Now, the CD'ers as I will call them, have all these reasons why the use them: better for the baby, better for the environment, cuter (They have designs and "looks") cost saving, they make them, etc... These are essentially talking points, thrown at inquisitive parents trying to persuade them to do the same, in the way that we always try and get people to convert to our way of thinking because it validates what we think. If I think something, and I can convince you to think the same thing, not only does it help prove I am right, but it lets me sleep at night. So CD'ers do this, and have become the diapering (and thereby parenting) purists. Think the "elite" parents, the artists that paints to paint, the musician that plays little bars just for fun, the writer who writes books for his friends but never gets them published. In our case, the blogger that just blogs - no ads, no "Donate" buttons, no payment, no "Stat counter", no anything - pure blogging bliss. The elite bloggers are the ones that don't care - they will blog to blog, an empty room is preferable over a crowded auditorium, the purer, the better.

Disposable income...literally

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Now, the DD'ers, the Disposable people are of the different ilk. They are buying diapers because they have to. It is simple, easy, clean, efficient. It makes like easier, and well everyone wants that. Are there chemicals in diapers? Probably. But everyone does it, they must be safe. Sure they cost, but compared to CD's? Heh, a few bucks a week to keep my hands free from poo, no problem! Sell-out? Fine. Self-Centered parent? We are talking poop and pee, I am thinking of all of us here. Do you really want me running to your bathroom to dump my 2yo's poo from their CD, and then throwing the used diaper in a bag in my diaper-bag that is chilling under your couch at your retirement party? Didn't think so. I will take the toxic little DD, roll it into a ball, put it in 3 plastic shopping bags and treat it like Chernobyl waste. These are the paid bloggers. We aren't talking art or purity, we are talking efficiency and bigger picture. It isn't about the little things - it is about the message. We all poop, or in this case blog, so it doesn't matter how we do it, but what we say. Right? I mean, DD'ers don't seem themselves as a community, they see themselves as the default, the normal, the "Duh, doesn't everyone want this?"

Moving on... up? down? sideways?

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So wait... how does my analogy have anything to do with blogging? Well let me tell you, it is my blog after all. I see the move to Patheos, and other places by bloggers as them leaving the CD community. (Again, we CD'ers see ourselves as a community.) So when someone leaves it is either an indictment on us or on them, so we try and make it an indictment on them. "They don't really care about the environment, they don't realize the cost/time benefit of sticking with diapers, they don't realize that the convenience is an illusion." Clearly we are right, they are wrong, and how could they? So short sighted they are... or are they?

Funny thing about many of the arguments the CD'ers throw out as their many points. The environment. Heh, actually, CD'ing can be a bigger tax on the environment, or at least a wash. Because of how much water is used, what they do with the diapers after they are done with them, the type of soap they use, and other cleaning scenarios, there is actually a questionable amount of "Green" action occurring here. Now I will say it is possible to make them a more green product, it just depends on use, but it isnt default. Cost: Sure can save a ton of money going with 5-6 $15 covers and a pack of 36 pre-folds at $50... but when you are buying $25 diapers x 24-40 diapers, plus custom "organic soap", matching wet-bag, and a few pairs of $150 wool longies, the prices start coming closer together. Can you save money doing it? Sure... but it isn't like it is automatic. Convenience: Sure it isn't that hard. Until you find out you aren't really a CD'er until you make them for yourself, or use a certain kind, and have to make your own soap, and don't use the All-in-ones, etc... Again, it depends on the use. Remember... I am a CD'er.

Now remember, I am a CD'er so the DD'ers don't get off easily. I am not one, just to be one, I do think at the end of the day it is better. But, is it just better for us as a family? Is this a: "Each has to do what is right for them?" Well, yeah kinda, but isn't that what we do anyways? I mean, we think Catholicism is the One True Faith, but not everyone else does. Do we hate them for that? No. Do we try and convert them? Sometimes. DD'ers are usually misconceived about how CD'ing works. They don't get it. It is a hands on learning experience, and with poop... well that is scary. Think of all the time and effort to just deal with poop? I mean, seriously does anyone care that you made that cute pirate-themed diaper that will fit a 6mos old all the way up to a 40yr old person when all that is going to have happen is to get pooped on? No. I want cheap, plastic, easy to use, poop holders. Of course, they are wrong, for many there is an art to parenting. An acceptance of the harshest of realities - think blueberries.

For the purity, money, God, Spiritual Growth, heck of it...

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So let  me tie this into blogging, before you all quit reading thinking I just wanted to talk about poop. The new Patheopian bloggers are sorta like CD'ers that quit and went the DD route. We as CD'ers, instead of making good arguments at them for switching are making ones that really aren't true or good arguments. There are some good arguments to be made though. These three folks are pretty orthodox people, and when you go to Patheos you find it is a Multi-Relgious site. Eh, we can look past that... the whole preach to the lost sheep thing. Fine, but when we go to the Catholic portal, we find an interesting set of links down the side as: sites we like - Busted Halo, dotCommonweal, National Catholic Reporter, America Magazine. Not really bastions of orthodox Catholic thought, so it is kind of interesting. This is a valid "Sell Out Point." Does this mean though that they shouldn't make the move? I don't know. Maybe this really does come down to doing what is good for your family, and I for mine.

Look, I would love to get paid to blog, but I don't write like Marc Barnes. I don't have the knowledge of Mark Shea, and I am not funny like Kat. So here I will stay. Do I think they are perfect? No, my point is people like them, and they can make money from blogging. Someone isn't going to pay them to blog out of the kindness of their hearts, they are making money for someone else, and getting a cut in the process. Is there an argument against them doing this? Sure there are probably 50 arguments against it. But it is their blogs. Their decisions dont change truth, and don't change the faith. Might this hurt their blogging or message? Sure. Could it instead help? Sure. We will have to wait and see, but in the mean time two sides will dig in and say it is either AWESOME or HORRIBLE, before we even know what is actually is.

So you see, making the switch to the big time blog world, is kind of like changing from Cloth to disposable diapers. In the end you are putting a bunch of poop into something so that it doesn't get all over the floor. What works for you, might not work for me. It does say something about the approach we take to blogging, and thereby the faith, but life isn't only about poop. Sometimes we cut one corner to save for the straightaway. So before we go persecuting them, let's wait and see what happens. If down the road there is reason to indictment them for the move, there will be more than enough evidence to do so. We aren't going to change their mind, so jumping on them now simply will draw lines in the sand.

As for me, I am going to publish this post, on my pure unadulterated blog that I post to without compensation. I don't need money [as a reason to blog - but it would be nice, anyone offering? :)], I do this out of a desire for spiritual growth. As a CD'er, I want my blogging to say something about what I say, much like what I choose to put on my child to catch her poop says about my parenting. For some it says that I care about things beyond just what I say on here, while others see it as me not being good enough to get paid.

Maybe there is a little bit of truth on both sides of the coin. I would love to Blog for money, but if it inhibited me I would stop, unless I was only concerned with the money. But it isn't that easy, sometimes it is a balance. I have thought about putting a donate button up, and once had one for a short bit. In the end, I wanted this to be about what I was saying and not why I was saying it. If someone wanted to pay me to blog or write a book, it would be based on what I was saying, that would be essential. I think these bloggers feel the same way. Now, if they get into it and that changes we can just stop reading, and then they might stop getting paid, and go back to the way it used to be. In the end it is about what they say, and how they want to handle it. It might not be best for us, or what we think is best, or even how we would/are doing it... but it is their choice. We have the choice to read them or not, and sure we can tell them what we think. In the end though it is all about what goes in the diaper blog post.

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