Blogland is a strange place, almost as strange as the flesh and blood world I inhabit the rest of the time.

I am always fascinated, if not slightly bemused, by the things that provoke comment on my, and other, blogs.  Every now and then I post a kind of 'can you help me out' message, such as funeral resources or preaching ideas and can be fairly confident there will be no reply.  Then I'll post something I think is flippant, trivial or even rhetorical and it prompts a flurry of comments.

The same is true of the blogs I visit, and I have to confess to having left some daft and even balatantly banal comments on other people's work.  Rarely do I find myself commenting on things of any import or seriousness.  Partly this is because some of the folk I know, and if I want a more serious conversation with them I'll do it by email, phone or even, just occasionally, in the flesh.  Partly it's because some of the 'serious' posts are too worthy for my simple little brain to repsond to.  Partly it's because I don't have anything useful to contribute.  Partly it's because blogging, for me anyway, is meant to be fun: a way of keeping in touch with come of my widely spread friends, a place to play with ideas around my research and ministry, sometimes even a place to escape from reality for a while

I always like reading the comments, they are often fun, and lend a suitable flippancy (silly sofa) slant that I find helpful in thinking about things.  I guess, though, I just feel a bit sorry for those folk who post good quality stuff and just get my off-beam humour in return.

A few of my most loyal readers tell me they are embarassed to leave their comments as they (the comments, not the people) aren't suitably academic or whatever - actually, 'Catriona I don't understand a word of this' is as useful to me as 'Have you read Professor Splidgey Splodge on such and such.'

Please feel free to leave your comments on any or all of my posts, I do read them, only rarely delete them (because they are of iffy origin or offensive), and often find they further my thinking, laughing and living.