Here I stand

This is a new experiment and experience for me. Bowing to the suggestions of several friends (well, maybe just a couple), I'm going to attempt to express myself on the ubiquitous electronic soapbox. Because I'm new to this and I'm not a cybergeek (no offense to same), I'm more than likely to screw this up at times. But if you're willing to bear with me, I hope to get some cogent thoughts across about how I feel about this nation and life in general. While much of it will be serious, I also believe there is a need to inject a little humor at times. Be serious, but don't take yourself too seriously; I don't.

I'd like to have intelligent and reasoned conversation and compare worldviews with you as well, but please avoid personal attacks and profanity, and please, AVOID SHOUTING. Use the cap key sparingly; it's annoying, distracting and lazy,and tends to draw my attention to the delete button. If that's too much to ask, oh well...

Worldview will figure prominently in this blog, as it does in every conversation. That's because a person's worldview affects how they interpret events and how they react, or don't react, to those events. Our personal worldview often tends to blind us to other perspectives and can lead to arguments instead of discussions. I freely admit my own bias (conservative, pro-life Christian, pro-military, peace-loving but willing to fight for the right reasons, pro-environment but not anti-human), but I don't have all the right answers. In fact, I'm still a sinner, a fool, a coward, an idiot and a hypocrite at times; but so is everyone else in the world, whether we admit it or not. It's our past experiences that determine our worldview and shape the person we are at the moment. The mark of our character is how hard we try to overcome those faults.

Incidentally, although my own worldview is based on classic Christianity, this will not be primarily a theological review. The world is somewhat larger than our beliefs; it includes the realities we must deal with day to day. So if you're not overly religious, there will likely be something for you, too.

That all being said, I hope you'll participate in this little adventure. Think about what you believe, and write to me about it. I would suggest, though, that you save your magnum opus for hardprint, because I don't always get a lot of time to read or respond in kind. I have to work for a living. Thanks for taking the time to read this far, and I hope to hear from you.