Tom made a comment in passing this week that Splitting Tens was dying. We spent no more than 5 seconds discussing why, but hearing it spoken out loud was a wake up call.

It’s the worst kept secret in town, this blog ain’t what it used to be. It’s like the current political environment where people say ‘I know people always say it was better back in the day, but it’s ACTUALLY terrible now’.

I am 50% of the people that goes into this blog’s content yet I am only 25% of the content, therefore I am 75% of the reason this blog is declining. It’s time to have an honest conversation about why.

Back in the day I’d always had a nagging sense of ‘I need to get a post out‘ and would rarely go more than a week without writing anything, no matter how mundane. But for the last year or so, it’s felt harder and harder to write about mundane things.

FOR EXAMPLE, I am currently in a parking war with my two neighbors and they aren’t even aware of it. They use their two cars for two parallel spots in front of each other, and when one leaves, the other pulls up to occupy both spots with one car. Then, when the one returns, the other backs the car up so the one can take the spot. I have been checking every day to see if I can snag the spot behind them so that when they do their move, I can pull my car into the half spot, making them unable to save the second spot.

Two years ago, that paragraph right there would’ve been a full post. I’d have made it dramatic and talked about how these people are low class white trash and if everyone lived like them the world would be way worse.

But in the last year+, my first thought when writing a post like that is along the lines of ‘These people undoubtedly have a worse life than me, and who am I to be the arbiter of parking in this neighborhood? This happens every day in every city in the world, I’m better off just taking the high road and not letting it bother me because it doesn’t really matter.” That, the DOESN’T REALLY MATTER HIGH ROAD, has been the death of my blogging.

When I formulate a post in my head, if the last paragraph is something like “I don’t know, it doesn’t really matter“, then I don’t write that post like I used it. It’s not that I don’t feel like writing, it’s that I feel silly writing what I used to write about. I’ve become TOO enlightened as a person. I can’t bring myself to write about the dumb stuff and I know no one wants to read the serious stuff, so that leaves me with nothing but running posts.

How do I fix this? Should I fix this? If I’M not passionate, the readers will tell, you’re all very sharp. But the truth is I don’t know. Of course I don’t WANT to end this with “I don’t know“, but at the very least I’m not following that up with “it doesn’t matter“. This matters a little bit. And I will think about why.