About Me and The Meaning of Strife

For what it’s worth, I decided it’s time to give you, the reader, a little insight into why I’m writing and where I’m coming from.

And by the way, sometimes WordPress does things with spacing and fonts that baffle me.  So excuse the spacing here, hopefully I will figure out how to fix it.

I think a lot.  It’s like a game to me, like figuring out a puzzle.  The puzzle of life.  I’m curious.  I’m open to anything.  Nothing is off-limits for me – I’ll read any wacky, alternative view just to stimulate my brain.   Just because I read something, doesn’t mean I agree with it.   I figure if my “truth” is threatened by some alternative view, well then I need to take a deeper look into that truth.   When I challenge my thinking or my beliefs, I gain great insight.  That’s what this is all about for me.

I have no interest in convincing anyone of anything.  That’s not my purpose or my intent.  I’m interested in sharing, and I’m interested in feedback.  There’s nothing like a fresh pair of eyes to help me see what I might be missing.

Nothing scares me.  Even as a child, I remember not understanding why people are afraid to die.  I know, that’s unusual, but I have always had this deep faith that all is well.

Most people that meet me casually, I am sure, have no idea that I have all this going on in my head.  (On the other hand, my good friends are well aware.)  I am not one to impose my ideas on others.  I am very passionate about my own conclusions and how they apply to my own life, but I don’t necessarily assume that what works for me will work for others.  I very strongly believe that we each have to do our own thinking and concluding.  I realize this is unusual, as so many people want to be “experts” and tell others what they should think and what they should do.  If you read much of my stuff, you will see this theme throughout.

I grew up in a Christian household.  Presbyterian and Methodist.  My parents lived their faith, in a I Corinthians 13 kind of way.   Mainstream, everyday Christians.  Then I married into a family that leans more conservative.  For a peek into that dynamic, read Encouraging People.  I grew up surrounded by Barnabas, and married into a family of Pauls.  I’ve spent a married lifetime working to find the balance.

While I consider myself a Christian, I have a hard time believing that an all-powerful God limited his interaction with His children to one group only.  He is bigger and wiser than that.  Because of this belief, I am open to the wisdom that can be found in other faiths, in ancient writings, in the experiences of everyday people.  I don’t think there is a limit to God’s influence.  I believe that God is in everything.

And everything, for me, usually occurs in everyday life.    As I have experiences, I notice what’s going on, how people act and react, and how life flows and changes.  Faith, for me, is practical and applied.  If you can’t live it, then is it real?

The method that comes naturally to me is to collect as much information as I can, and then examine it to see what I can learn.  When a subject area interests me, I tend to obsessively read and listen and observe, all the while looking for common threads, data points that don’t fit, nuggets of wisdom, and any conclusions that seem to be reasonable given the information I’ve found.

A great example of one of these subject areas is Parenting.  I have three kids.  I have nieces and nephews, and friends with kids.  I live in an area where there are many choices in terms of types of schools.  So as my kids have grown, I have observed and paid a lot of attention to how kids act, how parents parent their kids and how that seems to work out, how teachers treat kids, what people do when things “go wrong” etc, etc, etc.  I have read a TON of parenting books.  I’ve interacted with my own kids, tried out strategies, and learned what works with one, what doesn’t work with another.  I’ve definitely developed my own parenting approach that I think works best for my family and my kids, but I wouldn’t assume it would work for you.  But I have found that sharing experiences, and thinking about it out loud, and discussing the issues, DEFINITELY helps when one is trying to figure out how to be a parent.

Bottom line, this blog is an outlet for me.  The discipline of writing down ideas helps me to refine them and get more clear.  What’s fun for me, is that most of the views of the blog come via Google hits.  Randomly, people are finding my posts.

I’ll update and add to this as I can, but it feels like it’s time to post it.

So here goes….