This blog contains reflections on my life: All I’ve done and all I still hope to do. I’ve had two successful careers and I’m working full time in yet a third field. During the past decades, I’ve met many different people from around the world and have enjoyed more than my share of rich and rewarding experiences. Yet, as much as I enjoy reminiscing over the past, I also anticipate better times for myself, my family and the people of the world in the future. So, even though there are formable challenges on the horizon, there are even more rewarding opportunities if we in our society make wise choices, and if we give thanks to God for the tender mercies he provides us. All good things come from God.
I’m a Christian, a pilgrim who has been forgiven and redeemed. In the past, I’ve identified with certain religious labels: Lutheran, protestant, fundamentalist, charismatic, evangelical–but now, I just identify myself as a Christian, eschewing former labels for one reason or another.
I see this website though several lenses. First of all, as a welcoming, cyber safe-space for all. Regardless of your nationality, religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation, gender politics, immigration status, age or race, you are welcome here, and you may be heard. You may not agree with my perspective on every single issue. However, I can learn to respect your opinion even if I may disagree with it, and I think there is room for dialogue, and even consensus, between and among us, at least on some issues. Maybe it’s my nature that leads me to look for consensus or maybe it’s my training as a political scientist, but to me, light is much better than heat. Or, as historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. once remarked when speaking about Americans, “We’ve got too much pluribus and not enough unum.” Well, we can have both in equal measure.
Unlike my original blog “Yo,” I see this site as more of an e-zine not only in terms of layout, but also in terms of content. The Yo site is almost entirely designed as a personal Christian witness. Because I am traveling more than ever (as much as one can during a pandemic) and because there are exciting things happening in other areas of interest to me, I wanted the opportunity to explore and to journal these as well. I see some redundancy between the two sites, but I also see material that fits with one site, though not necessarily the other.
I hope to regularly feature stories that edify Christians and non-believers as well, approached from interesting and unusual perspectives. These stories focus on what the Christian faith is about, or are word studies from the Greek New Testament that quicken particular verses, and so on. Also, expect to see my chronicles about interesting places that my wife, our golden retriever and I visit, especially covered bridges, old mills, and forts, and interesting, historical places in general, most of which are off the beaten track. This year, we hope to make a second, more thorough visit to Walden Pond, as well as tour Emily Dickinson’s home in Amherst, visit fishing villages along the coast of Massachusetts and Maine, perhaps do some interviews with interesting people we meet. And, you may expect to find much more than travel and history stories here. I hope to include trends in health care from medical journals explained in understandable terms, the most interesting new discoveries and applications in medicine, deep learning and artificial intelligence, scientific discoveries, robots, a critique of popular conspiracy theories such as you hear from Q, and commentaries on current events, to name just a few items. Scholarship is also important to me, so expect to see original material or interviews that are not readily available from other sources.
I hope you enjoy this site, and I hope you’ll come back often, perhaps bookmark it or “Like” it on Facebook. I’m also open to suggestions on how to improve this site, to make it more interesting and inviting.
Feature photo credit: STILLFX (Shutterstock)