An UnBlog

Questions on Life, Death, God, and Occasionally Deeper Stuff

A few years ago I launched a blog and posted essays rather frequently — at least every year and a half or so...   But as I plugged along it occurred to me that there was something I wasn’t getting at — an itch I wasn’t scratching.  Something more than just the work of writing posts that readers would find thoughtful or entertaining.  And I realized after a time that my blogging — and it seems most blogging — is largely an exercise in passive first and third-person engagement, and that’s what I’ve grown weary of.  So I’ve veered off, and here we are, in active second-person engagement.  As in, what do YOU think?

My story in brief:  I grew up in a small midwestern town in the US, ended up in Boston in my twenties, and have spent nearly forty years here, almost that entire time working in various administrative roles in the university world.  I’ve been a Christian my whole life, and by choice in 2013 entered the Catholic Church...  what for me was a journey of substance and liberation.  I also got married for the first time when I was fifty-two.  My Cynthia is my treasure and my delight.  I would marry her a thousand times more.

So, what’s this List thing?

Well, it occurred to me after turning sixty that very soon I’m going to be dead.  Now, that could be three days from now or thirty years, but did you happen to notice how quickly the last thirty years went by?  So I’ve decided to spend whatever time I have left trying to get at what the questions of life might be, and then ask them...     directly, graciously, and relentlessly.  And “The List” on this site is simply the ever-growing result of that search.

With these questions I’m trying to get at the nature of Truth and our pursuit of it.  These are not academic questions as such, just human questions.  Some are simple and lighthearted.  Others drill a bit deeper and invite contemplation.  Each may be just a line that becomes a sketch that becomes a drawing that becomes a painting.  They might also touch as much on attitude and inclination as they do on essence — matters of the heart as well as the mind, if not more so at times.

Also, you’ll quickly see that this patch of probings gets a little thick, to say the least, so...   I recommend a scrolling list version of spin-the-bottle or drop-the-needle to work your way through them.  And maybe say a prayer before you spin...

My hope is that these questions will be portals into self-reflection, even as any particular question becomes a disturbance that deflects the inertia of our thought life….  our moral life….  our spiritual life.  Sit with your coffee, your beer, or your cigar and linger with these.  And if anything stirs up life for you, please contact me and let me know.  Thank you.