A Goodbye

It's been a long time coming, but the time has come to shut down this blog for good.  Even a casual look at the posts shows that the output here has slowed to a crawl, so the trajectory has been easy to see.  But I think it makes sense to officially and formally close things down.

The primary reason for closing things down now is that I am at a point in my life where it is no longer appropriate for me to post my personal musings on whatever strikes my fancy to a public forum.  More specifically, I am running for Judge here in Ohio--for proof, see here.  As part of that process, I am likely to take down, or at the very least de-list, this blog in the next week or so.  Taking it down is less about being afraid of providing public "dirt" to be used against me and more about trying to maintain public confidence in an impartial decision-maker if I were to be elected ultimately in the Fall.  I want to do this right and fulfill my obligations as best as I can to those who put me in this place of trust, should that come to pass.

But, before I do that, I wanted to say some final things.  I started this blog in its current form under its current name over nine years ago, during one of the worst times in my life.  I was just coming out of one of the worst periods of depression in my life--just after the incident described here.  As I was picking myself up from that, one of my action items was to be more honest about who I was, what I was thinking, and how I was doing at any particular period of time.  The thought I has was that if I posted my thoughts in the moment to the Internets, then it would be out in public for good and I couldn't take them back.  Public posting was a personal accountability project, a way to enforce honesty and transparency in myself.  And, I am pleased to say that I feel like I stayed true to that--with perhaps one exception.

In any event, I didn't expect anyone to read what I wrote.  But, to my surprise, people did read it.  It is here that I want to thank four people who have been very encouraging and supportive during the entirety of this project--Frank, Bill, Maureen, and (more recently) Sharon.  Unexpected though the positive feedback and "engagement" was, it was very welcome and I am very grateful for it.  Thank you very much, to those four in specific but to everyone who read in general.  If what I wrote was in any way helpful to you, I am glad.

One last thing.  A friend of mine the other day had a line that stuck with me.  I've seen it in a couple of different forms--a philosophical version from Epicurus, a more pop-Christian version--but the basic idea is "remember the days when you wished/hoped/prayed for the things you have now."  Looking back at the beginning of this blog as I was thinking about writing this post, I realized that I do now have the things that I was hoping against hope to find when this started.  I am healthy, in mind, body, and spirit.  I have a meaning and purpose and goals.  I have met a wonderful woman who lights up the sky for me, and with whom I hope to spend the rest of my life.  Trials and challenges will come, for sure, but where I am now would have seemed like a dream to where I was then.  And this blog is a chronicle of that journey.  Perhaps in some small way this can be an inspiration to you, where ever you find yourself on your journey.

All the best to all of you.  

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