Probably, yes. I have been incredibly busy over the past few months, on the business side, but also with family and lesser important issues such as cutting trees on my property, watching the World Cup soccer (loved it but glad that it is over, as always) and of course enjoying the summer which doesn’t last very long up here.

More seriously, shortly after the Ayaan Hirsi Ali crisis – which brought lots of new readers to this site - and my Dutch sojourn I was all of a sudden overwhelmed by a deep need to take a break from the blog. Holidays allow you to take that perspective, but they also take you out of the daily posting mode which is hard to get back into if you’re somewhat unmotivated and distracted. It also felt that the blog was becoming repetitive despite many protestations from various readers who tried to convince me otherwise. A general feeling of ‘drop the blog’ was furthermore reinforced by this excellent post from Donald Sensing – one of the early blogging stars – who pretty much slams the medium as a single-person venture. He is very right, but at the same time he isn’t because a blog is not just a media venture, it is also a passionate effort that enables and opens the door to incredible networking experiences and can provide the stage for further activities. It is never an end in itself, and that ultimately made me decide to get back into swing of it, although don’t expect any mega-posts soon. There will however be no shortage of material, the Dutch are gearing up for an early election in the fall and as I write this the Middle East is in deep turmoil, so stay tuned.

Oh yes, the other thing I did during the break was read this book. Giving up the blog? How could I ever have thought that to be possible?