Back to Blogging (maybe)…

I have long debated returning to this blog. It’s weird how easily I fell out of the habit of writing here, but then, I did have other things to do. Still. I feel a strange sense of neglect. People have continued to read my words and some have left comments (thank you!).

Perhaps now is a good time to return. Perhaps not; we’ll see. But it has been three years since last I wrote anything here, and much has changed. I am not who I was, but then who is?

Christ, that does sound pretentious, doesn’t it? Here’s what it is. Education and work took up a lot of time, some of the (unpublished) comments I received were not the friendliest, and I kind of felt like other people could do a better job at this than I. So I kinda just stopped. It was something that was fun that become a chore. I didn’t like that. But now I think it might be fun again, so I’m going to give it another go.

But let’s be clear on some things:

1. Still an atheist. Thanks for the comments about hoping I find my way back to God and whatever, but please be aware of the fact that I am equally hoping for you to realise that ‘god’ is a metaphor, and not a very helpful one at that.
2. Actually a historian now. As in, I get paid for it. Which is cool. When I began this I was an MA student studying medieval history. But now I have more fun letters after my name (and before, if I choose so). I have taught undergrads and mature learners, corrected essays, made many a presentation. I read back over some of the things I have said here and have thought to myself ‘that could have been more clear’. I think I understand better now how to communicate my thoughts, but maybe that is just a pleasant delusion.
3. I can assign homework if you wish.
4. The style will be the same. I find history fun and exciting, and it baffles me how some writers make it dull. For the love of gods, history is all the interesting things! All things happen in history! It is inescapable! Join us!
5. Just to clarify, I am an atheist. But this is only one facet of who I am. I consider, perhaps bizarrely, ‘historian’ to be part of my identity too. But also ‘social democrat’, ‘feminist’, ‘comic-book nerd’, my national identity… I could go one. Do not presume to know me because you once met an atheist and they annoyed you. Every group has its idiots and geniuses. I have Christian friends and we get on very well and have lively debates, and I have met many an idiot atheist who annoyed me with their feeble understanding of the concept. I don’t think believers are stupid, I just think they are wrong. Well, some of them are stupid; like I said, every group has its bad element.
6. Do I need a sixth point? I feel like I do, but I can’t really think of one. Maybe I’ll come back to it later.

Fair warning, it might be three more years before I post again.

Be awesome to one another.