I started it with the hopes of launching a brand-new career writing opinion pieces.
For a while, I seemed to be going someplace, even though I couldn't figure out how to monetize any of it. Then, a lot of things began changing in our world and my life. And while I knew I wasn't ever in step with a majority of anybody, I suddenly learned how out of step I am with almost everybody!
They say writing is a lonely exercise. It's especially lonely when your views are not widely held.
Because several professional writer and journalist friends complimented my blog over the years, I don't regret starting it. For a while, I enjoyed it. But now, I see where I really wasted a lot of posts writing about things like politics. Of all the topics on which to spend so much time!
Sigh.
They say writing is a lonely exercise. It's especially lonely when your views are not widely held.
Because several professional writer and journalist friends complimented my blog over the years, I don't regret starting it. For a while, I enjoyed it. But now, I see where I really wasted a lot of posts writing about things like politics. Of all the topics on which to spend so much time!
Sigh.
Because of my Dad's dementia, I chronicled my family's journey with him through that dreadful disease. It consumed my parents and me for eight hard years. To this day, my life's proudest accomplishment has been being able to help them through it, and to still stand on this side of it convinced that we did everything we could.
I've thought about turning those essays into a book of some sort, but another problem has come to the fore - something that was hard for me to admit online: Chronic clinical depression.
My official diagnosis came when I lived in New York City after college, but now, I realize I've had it as long as I can remember. Complicating matters has been my discovery of scientific research suggesting that antidepressants might contribute to the onset of dementia. Which, obviously, is a very real threat in my family.
I've been fully off of antidepressants since the summer of 2023, and so far, have thankfully been able to manage. But that hasn't been easy, either.
Obviously, things change. And I've changed. Only now, I can't really bring myself to write about it like I used to. And I'm tired. Tired of controversy, anger, and selfishness. So I've begun the process of deleting most of my content, which used to number over 1,300 published essays. Most of them are now dated, and far too many of them were written with a tone that I now regret. I used to view my world from a perspective of imperious indignation, or at least a miserable sanctimony, even as I chided other people when I saw the same flaws in them that I refused to see in myself.
My official diagnosis came when I lived in New York City after college, but now, I realize I've had it as long as I can remember. Complicating matters has been my discovery of scientific research suggesting that antidepressants might contribute to the onset of dementia. Which, obviously, is a very real threat in my family.
I've been fully off of antidepressants since the summer of 2023, and so far, have thankfully been able to manage. But that hasn't been easy, either.
Obviously, things change. And I've changed. Only now, I can't really bring myself to write about it like I used to. And I'm tired. Tired of controversy, anger, and selfishness. So I've begun the process of deleting most of my content, which used to number over 1,300 published essays. Most of them are now dated, and far too many of them were written with a tone that I now regret. I used to view my world from a perspective of imperious indignation, or at least a miserable sanctimony, even as I chided other people when I saw the same flaws in them that I refused to see in myself.
I've decided I don't want to sound the way I used to. I don't want to harangue or belittle. I don't want to focus on conflict. So my online self is changing, as I'm changing. And I can tell you now: There won't be much of my old content left. Nearly all of the political stuff will definitely get deleted. And hopefully, what remains will be beneficial to some degree.
Tradition holds that King Solomon wrote the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, where in Chapter 3, he so poignantly states, "for everything there is a season". Indeed.
Thank you for reading.
OK, here are some other facts:
Thank you for reading.
OK, here are some other facts:
- Born: Brooklyn, the most populous and diverse of NYC's five boroughs
- Current Home: Arlington, Texas, smack-dab between Fort Worth and Dallas
- Faith: I am a Christ-follower with Reformed tendencies who refutes the political reputation evangelicals have given the "E" word
- Education: Some architecture, a dab of journalism, a degree in sociology, and a little grad school in urban planning; all of which makes me uniquely qualified for, well... not very much
- Family: Single, never-married, no kids; with relatives in Texas, Michigan, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Indiana, Maine, and Finland
