About Me and Why I Started This Blog

I am a 35-year-old middle class American. I live and work in the suburbs, not far from a major city. I am married, have two children, and want to buy a house. I must raise my children in a world checkered by temptation and terrorism.

But according to the media, pundits, and pollsters, my problems are average. My advancing age means advertisers and marketing mavens are no longer interested in me. In a culture where old age is becoming the norm and social security is dwindling, they could not care less about me.

I must be right-wing or left-wing, conservative or liberal, red-state or blue-state. I am with the president or against the president. I must conform to be part of the crowd. I must contribute money to be heard by my elected representatives. I must watch Fox News or CNN.

But my political views are complex. I am not shoehorned into a compatible demographic. I vote on issues that are more important for my country than me. I am a social libertarian and fiscal conservative, which places me nowhere in this country’s main political parties. Because I am not a partisan, because I don’t agree with Ann Coulter or Michael Moore, because I have the nerve to be – independent – my voice seems unheeded and unwanted.

I am writing this on the last day of 2004. This has been a watershed year for me and the world. The world and I sit on the dawn of opportunity with an unknown road before us. I often marvel how random paths and encounters dramatically shift my life, and how so much of what happens to me I have no control over. I constantly ponder how I can improve myself. I often question if I’m passionate in my career. I am forced to balance my dreams with reality.

But no matter how much I question everything, I do not regret my decisions. I would rather regret the things I’ve done than the things I didn’t do. I know questioning and second guessing is human nature and I do not have all the answers. Some answers I will never know, but knowing how much I have to learn is the first step to becoming a better person.

I know there are many, many others like myself. Even if they don’t agree with everything I say or think, I know they are reading this with silent acknowledgement. That’s what keeps me optimistic and grounded at the same time. I have witnessed and experienced wonderful and terrible events, as has everyone. That has given me a sense of perspective. And for a long time, I had considered collecting my thoughts on these personal matters and world affairs and publishing them somewhere.

Of course, you can’t get hired without experience and you can’t get experience without being hired. So I am publishing them here, for now. This blog is for me and fulfilling a couple of my dreams. If it becomes popular I will be happy. But if nobody reads it, or the readership is confined to friends and family, I will still be happy because I have accomplished my primary goal.

Unlike other bloggers, this blog is not my life. I have a regular job and workweek, and being a father is also a full-time job. I will also do my best not to keep everything as serious as this essay. I enjoy sports and other leisure activities, take vacations like everyone else, and sometimes will write about non-important issues. I want to make this enjoyable, entertaining and enlightening for everyone who reads it.

Hopefully, this blog will spur me – and you – to think more about why things are what they are. Why the world and life sometimes does not make sense. And to make another effort to act on our dreams and try to change what we have control over.