Sunday, November 14, 2010

What Do Heath Ledger, Susan Boyle, and Catholics for Marriage Equality Have in Common?

They’re the topics of the posts currently most popular with visitors to The Wild Reed!

(Specifically, these posts are Heath Ledger, 1979-2008, Ah, That Feels Better: Susan Boyle's Cathartic "Perfect Day", and A Catholic Statement of Support for Same-Sex Marriage.)

Yes, as you can see, I’m really enjoying the new feature I recently added over on the sidebar that keeps track of the ten most popular posts of the past seven days. And I must say I find it very interesting to see what topics draw the most visitors.

My post commemorating Heath Ledger, for instance, has consistently been at the top of the list – except for a day or two last month when Mary MacKillop reigned supreme!

Another popular destination for visitors to The Wild Reed is a post focusing on actor
George Maharis (pictured at left). This post's popularity is no doubt due to certain images that are part of it. In fact, I think I recall once discovering that the URL for this particular post was listed on some sort of “nude male celebrities” site! Oh, well.

Other consistently popular Wild Reed posts include those focused on actor Hans Matheson (pictured at right in the role of Dr. Zhivago), singer Darren Hayes, the Archangel Michael, the Spirit of Vatican II, Ricky Martin, David R. Weiss' beautiful reflection "Making Love, Giving Life," the Song of Songs as the Bible’s gay love poem, and Benedict and Georg.

I assume that the high number of posts in the top ten to do with people associated with pop culture is the result of folks Googling for information and/or images about them. At least that’s what I can gather from this site’s Blogger stats section. This is understandable and doesn’t really bother me, although I must admit I wish there were more of my own original theological writings in the top ten list! – or a way of somehow taking the pop culture posts out of the equation when ascertaining the most popular posts, short of deleting them, that is!

So what are the posts that I’d like to see more frequently visited? Well, they’re basically ones that I put a lot of thought and care into writing, and within which, accordingly, I share most openly my experiences and insights as a gay Catholic man. They’re the heart and soul of this blog, in many ways.

So here for your perusal is a list of Wild Reed posts (or, in a couple of cases, series of posts) that I most long to share with those open to a progressive, gay, Catholic, perspective on faith, sexuality, politics, and culture. Enjoy!




See also the previous Wild Reed post:
One Thousand!


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