The mighty Norwegianity hangs it up for now...

Damn.... Norwegianity is leaving us. Mark ("da Wege") is joining Ford Bell's Minnesota campaign for U.S. Senate. I wish them all the best. Whether he wants it or not, I hope Mark's next step will be a move to DC where the drinks will be on me (at least the first time).

The Wege has powered through all the trials and tribulations of blogging with a serious commitment of time and energy and patience. Norwegianity has had a quick take on the pulse of all things political, cultural, and blogoful; my first daily stop in the blogosphere. I've also enjoyed the cd compilations he has shared with many of us at his own expense. Good taste, that guy.

For those of you who've never set up a blog, the technical part is easy (once the annoying little html kinks are worked out). The difficult part is in building readership, thinking about what you want to do with the medium and what the limitations are, discovering meta-blog services, networking, getting linked, and maintaining motivation to continue the conversation at moments when it seems like few people are listening and/or you have little to say. It can also be time-consuming.

Mark has been crucially important to the existence of Phronesisaical. He was the first to give me advice on setting up a blog and finding visitors; he has linked to this blog far more times than anyone else in an attempt to help us gain readers; he has shared his broader ideas about the blogosphere and its meaning, how it's important as well as unimportant. He has also always brought others along with him in his successes.

He is a good and decent guy with sharp wit, intelligence, a talent for the rant when ranting needs to be done, a strong commitment to the public good, an embodiment of liberal hope, and sheer generosity.

Mark's departure signals a great loss for the lefty blogosphere, but a gain for Minnesotan and hopefully US politics. I'll be following the campaign.

Thanks for everything. May Fortuna gaze kindly upon your new life.

His farewell is typical Wege:

For quite some time now I've felt that blogging just wasn't enough. This is a bellweather year, and us common folk may not again have this many opportunities for meaningfully contributing to a political campaign. This year and in 2008 we'll reshape our government and determine how we're going to clean up this ungodly mess George Bush has made of everything.

I'll be a tweaker, not a decider, but I will have an opportunity to help Ford Bell's campaign more effectively get their message out. And what is that message?

Single-payer universal health care

Getting our troops out of Iraq

That's a message I stand behind wholeheartedly. Single-payer universal health care would lower our national health care bill while extending coverage to all Americans, and not just the affluent and the lucky few who are still covered by their employers.

And Iraq is the place we need to remove ourselves from as quickly as feasible. We are doing ourselves and the Iraqis no favors by staying, and Bush's dreams of permanent bases are more likely a ticket to WWIII and not that neocon empire favored by the unhinged right.

Taking a sabbatical from posting at Norwegianity is not a requirement of this job, but I personally believe it is a necessity. Instead of reading eight newspapers and several dozen blogs a day, I need to begin focusing in on key issues. Rather than being an inch deep and worldwide, I need to gain a deeper understanding of health care and other issues of concern to Minnesotans. The two jobs simply are not compatible.

UPDATE:
Umm, and,... oh yeah, my obituary-sounding epitaph notwithstanding, the Wege may be back and blogging in the fall.