About Me

I am a person who a few short years ago described himself as a social liberal and fiscal conservative. Since then, learning more about myself and recognizing the difficulty of holding both, I recognize that I’m liberal but not wildly so.

Spiritually, I fit somewhere on the same branch as Annie Dillard – a Presbyterian who asks, paraphrased “Don’t these people ever listen to what they are saying?” What is faith? I keep coming back what a friend once said. “Faith is a verb, not a noun.” You do faith, not have it.

One of the most influential spiritual writers on my shelf is Lawrence Kushner. I specifically remember one small midrash he relates. The most influential person in the Bible (keeping in mind that Reb Kushner is Jewish) does not even have a name. Joseph is searching the fields for his brothers, and cannot find him. He encounters a man who tells him that he heard them say they were going to Dothan. Without that piece of information, Joseph would have returned to his father’s tent, and all of history would have changed. I use that small encounter to illustrate how each and every one of our own encounters can change history, even if only for that one person or ourselves.

I have a high level of appreciation for the ability of individual people to do good, though less in that of organizations, especially governments, to reflect the desires of their members. I’ve become increasingly cynical, believing that those who desire positions of leadership do so not to lead, but for power and aggrandizement. I would like the blog to discuss ways to get other types into public service.

In further details, I have a bachelor’s and most of a master’s degree (33 of 36 hours). I lost interest so never completed the final project. That does tell more about me that I would like, but it was twenty years ago, and I’m now a different person. I retired as a Master Sergeant from the USAF in 1978. While in the AF, I was a security policeman, a military training instructor, computer programmer, and I targeted nuclear weapons. I completed my career as a recruiter, recruiting first non-prior service and later fully qualified, board certified physicians to enter the AF. I don’t think I ever lied to get someone to come into my AF, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t put the AF in the best possible light. I believed in my product.

From 1978 to December, 2003 I was a computer consultant. I narrowed my skills to the niche of business analyst, which essentially means that I assisted businesses to define their needs in a computer system. And that, by translation, means that I knew how to a) gain the confidence of the client, b) ask the correct questions so that they can define their own requirements, and c) write the requirements in a document that computer companies can respond to.

In December, 2003, I retired. My wife and I have been enjoying retirement. We've had two trips abroad, Italy and Scandanavia, and one long driving trip across the US.

Which of these means that I have the sort of credentials that will draw others to read my blog? I have no idea, and do not truly care. I figure that if there are enough people who express themselves that some good will come of it. I hope that I am open to the views of others, and that I am willing to adopt, adapt, or stand firm and defend my own. And besides, I have found over the years that I often define my views even as I write them.

You have probably noticed that there isn’t a great deal of personal information here. I recognize that an enormous part of who I am is a result of and revolves around my family, books, friends, and interests. Some of that will get into the blog, some will not. I am 67 years old, an avid reader, an award winning hand quilter, and am in the process of losing weight and exercising so that my health will continue to be strong and remain so for as long as necessary for me to complete my mission. That implies that I have a mission. I think I do, but I certainly do not know what it is. I just feel deep within myself that there is something I’m supposed to do before I die, and that I haven’t yet discovered what it is. Perhaps I’ll be like the man who directed Joseph and never know the results of my actions, and that too is alright. But, I truly believe that there is yet a specific mission I am to undertake and that I will know it.