I'm back...

Dear readers,

It has been quite a while! Some years ago I indicated my intention to migrate away from Blogger to the more accessible and convenient world of social media. This migration was motivated by a number of factors, not least my addiction to my smartphone. A rather matierialistic desire, probably borne out of loneliness, to connect more with ordinary people in my life. I had also thought for the longest time that my reach here was very limited and I wanted to expand my readership to a more diverse audience, not just friends and old, loyal readers (for whom "Patricius" was perhaps a laughing stock!). As it turned out my experience was mostly negative. The ordinary people turned out to be both very boring and malicious; and they're just the people I know of! As for growing my audience, it turns out that if you have something insightful or original to say, growth is impossible. And so I have disconnected from social media altogether.

I have come to understand, the hard way, that the Internet is a very anonymous and enormous place. I understood that theoretically as far back as secondary school IT but it's quite different if you're on the receiving end of something unpleasant. As you know, I am not averse to speaking my mind and you wouldn't believe the people on the fringes of your life who are out there snooping. Some are just innocuous and nosy, they like to know your business (or what you're willing to reveal online); others have dark motives, whether that is reputation damage or even blackmail (I have never been blackmailed by the way). So by withdrawing completely I have done two things; I have suffocated the oxygen of the snoopers and given myself peace of mind.

This all sounds rather dark! It wasn't all bad. I connected to some interesting accounts, mostly church-related (and I don't mean "churchianity" either). I found few of the Romanov accounts worthwhile. They were mostly teenage girls in love with the black and white photos, and gossiping about which prince or cossack the Grand Duchesses were in love with. And I won't repeat the same mistake I made with Facebook all those years ago. I had a very active Facebook account until around 2013 and in a sudden spasm of iconoclasm I deleted everything without a trace. As that amounted to the permanent deletion of the diary of my life for the period 2009-2013, I was conscious not to do that again. Everything is simply archived and I can retrieve it very quickly. I just have no intention of ever accessing it again!

I actually won't miss my followers. I peaked at a mere 870 (I think) and of those only about 100 were regularly engaged with my content. Some, being entirely innocent of "Patricius," were completely ignorant of my actual beliefs. Only a couple of months ago I was invited to some Ordinariate liturgy. I politely declined, falsely claiming to have had other commitments. The real reason was that I couldn't be bothered explaining my aversion thereto. Having said this, I imagine most of my followers on Instagram would not bother taking up readership here anyway! Strange isn't it, how the forum, not the content, should decide the following.

I don't really have a plan for this place, other than to sort of pick up where I left off on Instagram. The content there was informal and eclectic, ranging from pictures of churches I visit to succinct commentary on things. I've called the blog "Lucernarium." That won't be wasted on connoisseurs of liturgy! I'd like to say that liturgy will form a large part of the content here but I'll see how it goes. For now, welcome back!