Respite And Secrets

Work has been overwhelming.

The ever growing list of clients and secret web projects (that you will never, ever, be privy too) has been the focus of our attention as of late and quite frankly, we are exhausted.

With business leaders, tycoons, heads of state and a herd of Hollywood starlets all vying (and braying) for our attention, we can find respite in only one place- Dr Sanity's Carnival of the the Insanities.

What is it about the Carnival of the Insanities that is so addictive?

The answer is simple.

In a world where everything overwhelms us and seems to be conspiring against us, each week Dr Sanity's Carnival provides some much needed respite.

There are people that are crazier than we, and there are situations that are even more absurd than our own. There is real comedy and real comic pathos.

There are outrages that are even more outrageous than the things that get us down and there are outrages that have long since cleared the line that demarcates outrageous from the merely ridiculous.

Items in the Carnival can make us laugh or cry, celebrate or weep. Each week, the Carnival celebrates the human condition, by bringing the readers into a community. For a few moments, we are all together and less isolated. We share the same intent- to find common ground.

That is secret to Dr Sanity's community of readers. It matters less if we all agree or even disagree- we come as a community at a time when community is being redefined. Her readers are involved in her efforts, and it shows. The comments are most often revealing- her posts often elicit a kind of intellectual passion, not so often seen. Her regular readers are thoughtful, insightful and provocative.

Dr Sanity posts a mix of light fare and more evocative material- including material in which she not only questions her own motives, but more importantly, her actions and reactions to more complex situations. The aforementioned comments generated by her readers can be measured in numbers, quality of responses and that ever elusive, engagement factor.

Blogs are easy to establish. A quality readership and sense of community is more ethereal and rare- and that sense of community are what the best blogs share. A blog that claims only readership but does not maintain an involved community is about as memorable as walking by cases of Spam in the supermarket.

No one just reads Dr Sanity's blog or her weekly Carnival of the Insanities. They participate and partake of a community of thinkers and critics- a not so common endeavor.