The Introduction

I’m starting a blog.  And it would be fair to ask a few questions, so I will ask them for you.  Why?  What’s it gonna be about?  and Who in the world would want to hear your opinions on anything?

Let’s take the last one first.  This is actually hard for me to get started.  It feels arrogant.  What’s so special about me?  Aren’t I just some poor shlub who didn’t finish college and can barely hold on to a job and struggles with a lot of the same stuff as everybody else?  Do I really think that my opinions and ideas need to be out there?  

Umm … yes?  Okay, the world’s not going to stop turning if I choose not to do this.  But I do think that I have some unique qualities to bring to the table.  In the Meiers-Briggs personality profile, my type is called an Engineer.  Folks of my type are usually engineers or scientists or mathematicians.  But while I have an analytical brain, I’ve always been more focused on people and relationships.  (And games.)  I treat them like a puzzle to be solved.  Because of this, I think I have some insights that are worth sharing with a larger audience.

That covers part of the why.  Another part is that I need a project.  I was listening to Scott Adams on the radio, and he was talking about how he wasn’t a great artist, but he could draw.  And he wasn’t the funniest guy in the world, but he could make people laugh.  And he wasn’t an amazing writer, but he could write.  And once he cobbled them all together, it became Dilbert.  I’m hoping to do the same thing, to cobble together several areas in which I have some talent and see if they come together to create something greater than its parts.

What’s it gonna be about?  I think my goal here is to post thoughts or ideas that will make people think.  So, it’s not going to be a slice-of-life type of blog – not about me, per se, although obviously it will be subjective, and books or movies that move me will no doubt find their way into the text.  But what I want to do is engage people, start a conversation.  There will be theology, relational advice, and silly stuff, too.  Because I’m me.

Do I expect to get advertisers and start collecting revenue and have the whole thing support me in a few years?  No.  Do I think that maybe it’ll catch on and some publisher will ask me to turn it into a book?  Probably not.  But if in the course of doing this, if even one person reading it feels like their life has been changed in a way that – ha!  Just kidding.  But maybe.  Who knows?