The Fear of Very Minor Changes

I've noticed on a few blogs that the paragraphs aren't all squat like mine -- you know, everything actually stretches out to the sides. Anyway, I never mess around with different blog backgrounds or templates. I hardly even dare to consider changing my opening picture. I don’t know why. I am always afraid I’ll ruin everything and can never go back if I mess around. Even in my house, I don’t dare put something different on a wall or shelf even though it might end up looking 100 times better. My sisters are so good at changing things up a bit and things are always new and better and fun with their homes, bedding, hair, or even blogs. I don’t know why I am so scared. See that different picture of me on the “about me” section off to the right? I had to comment on Shannon’s blog 50 times with different pics because I was too afraid to change on my own. I was even nervous that putting those pics of my kids down the side might ruin everything. Huh. Weird.

The point of this is to say that I was looking at the basic blog templates last night and realized that my same template (plain boring white) was available in “stretch” mode. I thought it might be good for me because what with my always selecting “large” font as well as being incapable of brevity, my posts look sooooo long as you scroll down the page, but certainly, if you stretched it out so the lines across the page were longer, then as you scrolled down it would appear shorter. Never mind that it wouldn’t actually be shorter, you’d all feel like it was and like to read it more.

The trouble was that it said if I applied the template it would erase all my font choices and colors (and as you’ve noticed, my precious different colored fonts are all the variety I’ve got going here). I was supposed to be able to “preview” my blog in stretch mode, but it won’t work. I was torn. I couldn’t change it with out knowing I’d love it! What was I to do?!! Luckily Mike noticed the quandary I was in and told me to stop right where I was at. He assured me that long and skinny posts were always preferable to short and fat posts. He told me no one would ever consider reading a post if it stretched across my page. He said these short lines are much much more fun, and everybody loves white space. I don’t know if he meant it or if I believe it (since I’ve been drawn to those longer lines), all the same I was relieved. For the present time I won’t have to battle with the awful decision of whether or not I should make a minor and completely insignificant change. (As a side note, I am pretty good with big changes in my life – babies, moves when you don’t have a home to move to, etc. So, I’m not all bad).