Ten years ago today, with a post called On the Road to Mountain Meadows published at Times & Seasons, I became a blogger.
The earliest motivation for blogging was, probably understandably, pure fun. There were people willing to read my stories! People told me those stories were great! Woo-hoo! Here’s another one! I confess that I’ve never quite gotten over the ego-boost that positive comments give me – but blogging quickly became about something more.
In my first years as a blogger, questions about Mormon history were hot and contentious. Many readers wanted to know about this and that and the other historical thing that was being thrown at them by others online, but they weren’t familiar enough with issues and sources to sort through the accusations and editorializing to know what was what. A lot of my early blogging focused on historical violence, and explaining how the Church archives worked and showing how a responsible historian went about sorting through the records, analyzing claims, and answering questions. I hope it isn’t arrogance to say that I felt I was contributing to the faith and the faithful by showing that someone could know as much about the dark corners of our history as any noisier, angrier voice, and still be a believer.
For most of the past ten years I have been actively scouring whole collections of primary sources, many of which have seldom, even never, been used before by historians. There was a discovery on every other page, someone’s life to explore and a story to tell, and I could tell stories that had never before been told in any form. Blogging gave me a platform for sharing those stories that so moved and fascinated me – I love us. I love our history, and our literature, and our culture, quirkiness and all. I see the hand of God more clearly in others’ lives than in my own, and our history is so full of lives and stories that I can research as a historian, then tell as a believer. Blogging was, and is, a blessing to me in that respect.
Sometime over the past few years, the challenges of online Mormonism have shifted away from history and focused very tightly on a narrow set of social issues. That has made blogging much more difficult for me. I don’t suppose I have any special insight into LGBT issues. I do suppose I have important insights into Mormonism and the life of its singles, but if I return to that topic too often, won’t I bore my married audience? And for the past year or so I have been trying to make use of the historical materials I have collected through the years, rather than collecting more, and so the thrill of discovery comes less often and provides less grist for the blogging mill.
But still, hard as it is and sporadic as I have been lately, I intend to keep pitching into Keepa. Blogging has become a lifeline to me in ways I had never anticipated. You see, among the many currents of Mormonism, two are especially prominent for me right now. First is the content of Mormonism itself, the kind of thing you can live in your head and your heart. I mean scripture study, and the reading and writing of history, and the intellectual and emotional and personal living of the gospel. But there’s the other current, too, the community aspect that, for me, right now, is very difficult to come by. I have almost no face-to-face contact with anyone these days, and when I do have that community contact, at church on Sundays, I don’t get what I need from it. I get proof-texting instead of scripture study. I get pop psychology instead of gospel. I get gibberish, and people who haven’t prepared talks but instead think they can get through their assigned time by shooting the breeze with endless, pointless, badly told personal stories about nothing. I know these are good people, and I know most people do their best, but it isn’t what I need. So blogging, when I can get my act together well enough to write something, is what substitutes for social support these days. Thanks for being there.
This too shall pass, I know. Life has a way of doing that, for realz and online. I suppose the online focus on social issues will continue to dominate general conversation for some time to come. While history is my real love and I will continue to blog most heavily about our past, I may also wade more deeply into those social questions – not because I have any expertise or special insight, but merely because I’m a Mormon who believes in angels and gold plates and living prophets, who believes that there are boundaries to speech and behavior but no boundaries to blessings, who is confident that God directs this work and that there are answers and that looking to prophets for guidance is a good thing. And because I like to tell stories about us and our past and present and future. We’re fascinating, whether we’re on our best behavior or our worst.
Happy bloggiversary.
Good stuff, Ardis. I, too, feel that Sunday meetings are more fluff than substance, but as Elder Ballard said, where else would we go? I love your blogging, and the historical aspects and stories on Keepa. I look forward to new posts, regardless of topic, and I appreciate you taking time to bless me and expand my knowledge.
However, on a purely, pop-psyche note…you gotta find another outlet, friend. Unless you reside in Siberia or a deserted island, there must surely be humans within speaking distance once in a while. If not, I urge you to broaden your viewpoint. I find even a quick greeting to a passing stranger raises my spirits, at least briefly. Isolation isn’t healthy. –back off my soapbox
Happy Anniversary, Ardis!
Ardis,
You may have lost some of the thrill of discovery, but it is still very much there for us keepaninnies. I don’t comment often, but it is a rare week that I don’t ask myself “where does she find all this cool stuff?” several times. We are the beneficiaries of your hard work and love for those stories. I am sure I am not the only reader hoping for another ten years of your blogging!
Ardis, I’m missing your Gospel Doctrine classes terribly. Have been going to Family History! Actually found a couple of names.
Last week we made a trip to Star Valley to the new temple open house. On the way, our daughter said I should write my father’s story. I’ve been trying to. It’s complicated and hard, but important.
I love your stories and heard you have or are publishing a book. I want to buy a copy.
Here’s to more Keepa. And I would love to have face to face with you.
Yes, happy bloggiversary!
I feel badly that I don’t contribute here as much as I used to (especially since I know it partially fills your cup), but I still frequently visit and, like CS Eric, am constantly surprised at the gems you find, Ardis, as well as your excellent writing and commentary.
Here’s to 10 more years!
Ardis, congratulations on ten well-written years’ worth of blog posts and all the material you have found to share with us, from photographic archives and missionary journals to poetry and paper dolls. Here’s to the next ten indeed!
Ardis,
I don’t often comment but your blog is one of the few I still turn to after all these years.
Happy 10th anniversary! And here’s to another 10 more. Yours is the most amazing blog ever, and though I don’t say it often enough, I greatly appreciate your effort, your insight, and your amazing ability to tease out the hidden nuggets of history. I wish I lived in your neighborhood — I’d love to be your friend IRL.
Congratulations on ten years. I am so grateful for the time you have dedicated to this space. It fills my cup. I hope you find the connections and fulfilling relationships that will bring you the same fulfillment that you bring others on your blog.
Anniversary! Many happy returns of the day!
Okay, I tried to be clever and cut/paste “Happy Anniversary” in the Deseret Alphabet, but the website would not entertain such mirth. Happy Bloggiversary anyway!
It’s been a wonderful ten years. Great stories and information and an occasional pithy rant, and, definitely not least, a well-curated community. Thank you.
Thanks, Ardis, for pursuing your passion, and for letting the rest of us tag along.
I enjoy reading the bits that I do because it gives me something different to think about that isn’t on my children-PTA-husband’s work-Relief Society-grocery list. And the family laughs at the jokes when I read them out loud. Thanks!
Thanks Ardis for ten years of wisdom and wit, history and herstory, and inspiration and profound insight. Bravo!
While I don’t read every post here or anywhere else, I am full of admiration for the quality of your research and writing. Every post I read is well-reasoned and worth my time. Happy anniversary!
Congrats on making the shortlist of 3 blogs I still read 🙂
I love the history. Please keep sharing your stories.
Thanks for the memories. Applause for continuing. Even when there have been sharp disagreements (it happens!) I appreciate your work and voice.
Also, I believe and experience and concur that online communities are real community.
I get to your blog through the Mormon Archipelago, Ardis. Yours is the only blog whose titles I read and attempt to discern whether I should read them. I’m aware there are other blogs on that site, but they’re not the reason I come here. Thank you for all you do.
Thanks for sharing these 10 years of your life. I discovered you a few years in but I have retro-read most of your writings and love staying up to date since that discovery. You provide a valuable service by giving a voice to our history and you have a way of cutting through to the important things in the current blogernacle’s favorite topics.
I know how and where you get this stuff–and it involves incredible patience, the ability to endure tedium, and the sense to find the grains of gold in all the sand. If you were actually panning for gold, you would be rich by now. But you certainly have enriched your readers.
Ten years, eh? I guess that means more than 36,000 visits by me to your site. Thank you for everything!
Happy 10th! This is reliably one of my favorite places on the web.
Happy anniversary!
Ardis, you most certainly should be adding posts about singleness in the Church. I come to your blog to learn about stuff I’m not as familiar with as I should be. I’d rather learn from a good writer and an excellent observer who sees how things fit together. I think that comes form your historical leanings.
I’ve been reading here almost the whole 10 years, I think. And I’ve read it all.
Keepa pitchin’ us ALL of it.
That you for what you do.
(P.S. I used your stories about the Dutch potato farmers after WWII in a talk I gave about a month ago. It was well received, and it probably added a couple more readers.)
Whatever your motivation, I’ll be here reading. Thank you for providing much needed, grounded-in-faith perspective and insight.
Dang it. I meant THANK you for what you do.
Ardis,
I enjoy your blog and appreciate the comments you make on other blogs. Even though we have not met in real life, I often refer to you as if we have. I will tell my husband about something on your blog, or a comment you wrote that I really liked. I will say something like “Ardis wrote a great reply to a blog post I read” and he actually knows who I am talking about, because I have told him about your blog, your book, and your level headed faithful comments.
Keepa on!
Ten years of blogging, huh? How much is that in internet years? Congratulations.
To address a few points in the OP, count me as one whose faith and testimony has been strengthened by your example of one who “know[s] as much about the dark corners of our history as any noisier, angrier voice, and still be a believer.”
Also, some of my favorite posts here are what you consider “rants.” I would gladly read your posts for insights on social issues, singleness, and the topics of the day. My life experience is quite different than yours, which obviously shapes how we view things. I think we need more voices and perspectives, not fewer.
And finally, Keepa is among my favorite blogs precisely because your love of Mormon history, literature, and culture “quirkiness and all” shines through your writing. It really is a unique gift and talent, and I hope you will continue to share it with those of us fortunate enough to have discovered Keepa.
I just came over to the blog this morning to see what was new. While I had already read your post, I read all the comments just now. I concur with all the thanks, compliments to your writing, and support for your tremendous character traits that allow this blog to exist. I have found many tidbits that clarify, add to understandings, and enrich my life. Thank you for your influence in my life.
Happy anniversary, Ardis and Keepa. 🙂
Yes, please, to more writing of whatever you’d like, including rants.
I’m only slightly embarrassed at how fanboy I went on meeting you in person. I mean, this is -the- Adris Parshall; how could anyone not be excited? If I kept an autograph book, I’d have had you sign it at least twice.
Late to the party, as usual, but delighted to wish you a belated happy bloggiversary. You are many things, Ardis: intelligent, articulate, insightful, informative, compassionate, knowledgeable, dedicated, jolly good fun (and I could go on and on). . . . Boring? Never!!!
Keep on keeping on. The Mormon blogisphere is a richer, kinder, gentler, better place because you are here.
Hurray, congratulations, and thank you!
Ardis, your description of daily Church life and sociality is almost exactly mine right now.
We live too close to each other to not be able to reach out sometime. If you want to, you know where to find me.
I remember that post at T&S! It was amazing! Thanks for hanging in there!
I miss blogging.
“I wonder if I should post about the difficulties a person of color might face– after all, most of my readership is white, and it might bore them.”
This is THE ONLY place on the web where I have found any sort of thoughtful discussion about how hard it is, sometimes, to be single in the church. (Not that I’ve gone looking– but still…) It has provided me, personally, with a feeling of not-alone-ness which has been non-trivial.
Happy blogiversary, btw!
And. SilverRain lives close and has offered to come visit; I believe that you might be surprised at the response you would get if you posted an invitation to a Keepa meet-and-greet. Perhaps not at a bar– which is where the last blog-related social function I attended was held– but, perhaps, a potluck picnic at the Brigham Young Historic Park, which I believe is super close to where you work and live? I’m not sure how the weather is in SLC these days; maybe it’s too cold already for that. But it is, at least, a solid suggestion, and if you decided to have one next summer some time, there is a moderate chance I could make it out. I would certainly be delighted if I was able to meet The Ardis Parshall in person.
There is also the consideration that if you are like me, more than four attendees might constitute Too Many People At Once, no matter how much you like them (or how much they like you). Perhaps if this is the case, you might post a potluck RSVP, and if you get interest from more than, say, five people, you could just have more than one potluck.
Not sayin’ you have to. Just sayin’ I’d love to come. If I could.
Keep on Keepapitchinin on!
(I wish this had a location button “at MARB, BYU, Provo, Utah”)
Happy anniversary, I’ve been a daily reader for the whole ten years. I love the personal touch you bring to whatever you’re writing about. I especially love the insight into the lives of common saints who were never famous and will never be included in academic histories.
Yours is a unique voice in the Bloggernacle. I appreciate everything you write. Happy anniversary! 🙂
We so badly need faithful hold to the rod bloggers to help us. Thank you.
Happy bloggiversary, Ardis.
I was startled to find that I had actually commented on your first blog post. Time flies.
What a beautiful and touching testimony! Your true feelings are faithful and faith-promoting; and your history-probing skills are extraordinary. I have been blessed by your sharing and awed by your writing skills. Amen and amen to all of the congratulations and accolades above.
I live close enough to be your visiting teacher and would love to volunteer. I promise not to simply share the lesson, but be a true and constant friend.
I can’t believe it has been ten years. When I look back at all you have accomplished since then, not just with Keepa, I am so proud of you. I need to come to Salt Lake so we can visit again. Every time I get down that way, my plans keep getting changed for me.
Ardis,
Thank you for blogging and sharing so much knowledge, and your testimony with us. It takes courage, as well a great commitment of time, to do so. The sleuthing you and Amy T do is remarkable. I read Keepa regularly. I just don’t comment often.