One thing I love about Substack is that the PUBLISH button looks far more ominous than anything else on social media. I've written numerous blurps and articles that just haven't made it to the publish button. I really like that the length desirable for publishing here exceeds the length of other platforms. The newsletter format gives me the opportunity to reflect on both the writing style and content of whatever I'm working on. In many cases, I find that the topic that may have been on my mind (either momentarily or as long as a couple days) isn't really worth the effort to compose in a presentable fashion nor is it worthy of further contemplation.
It is this type of curation that is needed for online posting. I took to Substack as an alternative to other social media platforms for this major reason. The content that I produce should not be an impulsive or emotive response to an issue, nor should it be something that has some sort of misunderstood subtext—the inside information that those who share a real-life closeness to me would understand, but casual friends, acquaintances, and online connections may have no context to understand. Here, I am free to clarify my thoughts and compose materials worth sharing. But what's worth sharing?
I recently wrote a reflection of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The event hurt me deeply. I was geographically only an hour or two away from the area when the event happened. I reflected back on my own experiences with loss and being in an active shooter situation, and in the end, I found that what I wrote felt more like journalling than any meaningful contribution to outside readers (maybe it would be interest at best).
Here in this piece at least, I have a point: We do not need to publish our thoughts, be they miniscule or profound. But that's what we do, and all too frequently.
So for the time being, I'm keeping a number of articles that I've written unpublished. Less is more sometimes. Not everything needs to be heard or read. Silence is a virtue. This way, when we speak, hopefully we will vocalize what is worth saying.
Let us love silence till the world is made to die in our hearts. Let us always remember death, and in this thought draw near to God in our heart -- and the pleasures of this world will have our scorn. St. Isaac of Syria