It’s been a long time comin’ — well, not really

Go here for musical accompaniment to today’s effort.

Change.

Most people don’t like it no matter how much they profess otherwise. I’m no better than anyone else. It’s human nature, I think. I like routine. It’s comfortable.

But for some reason, I can’t stop changing this blog. If I read correctly, WordPress has more than 240 themes that can be used to build a blog. Many of those themes are free for any blogger to use. Others are for sale. I haven’t paid for a theme, but it’s starting to feel as if I have used all of the free ones. The theme I am using now is called Ari by Elmastudio. So far, I really like it, but my opinion will likely change by this time next week.

Once upon a time, it was sort of generally accepted at many of the newspapers where I used to work that readers really didn’t like change. At one of those newspapers, if I am remembered at all, it will be as the dummy who very briefly removed Blondie from the comics page. Anyway, it always seemed as if someone was upset whenever the newspaper was changed. And this belief carried over to newspaper websites in the early days of their existence. They didn’t change very much or very often.

So then, nearly a year ago, I began writing regularly for the personal blog I started three or four years ago. Recently, I have been compulsively changing themes and other aspects of Brome Hill. I think this is because:

• It’s so darn easy to change stuff. Anybody — even an old newspaper guy with minimal computer skills — can do it.
• Like a lot of other bloggers, I’d like to have more readers. I’ve had a slight uptick in readership lately and I’ve started reading more blogs myself. The changes I’ve been trying are mostly things copied from other blogs I like. I figure maybe it will help attract a few more readers.
• The web design-aspect of making changes to this blog appeals to a deep-seated part of my personality — the part that turned a guy who could kind of draw, take photos and write a little in college into a newspaper reporter and later editor. And I like not having to wait for a corporate web designer to make changes on his schedule instead of mine.

But what I think about these changes may not really matter. And I’d like to hear from more readers anyway, so here’s your chance. Please take a few seconds to offer some feedback in the reader comments below or to complete this little poll. And, as always, thanks for taking a few minutes to stop by. I hope you’ll come back again. I really like it when you come back two or three times a day.

One more thing: Fooling with this blog in no way compares with the struggles Sam Cooke addressed in the 1964 single, A Change is Gonna Come.
This I know well.

But it is an amazing song with an admirable message of struggle and waiting for change. And regardless of the ways in which you may change your life, once it happens, you may feel that the change was a long time coming. That’s how I’ll feel about this blog if it ever builds a large audience.