Reflections and Insights of an Unabashed Old-schooler.

After nearly five years’ writing of my Omnium-Gatherum-Millerum musings I am ready (soon) to give it a facelift and a new title.  I am still, and always will be, highly indebted to the ‘giants’ whom I have never met—except through their writings—who have inspired me and persuaded me to continue in the hopes that my own postings (and theirs) may be helpful to someone else.

 

As I acknowledged in one of my very first forays into public writing I make no claim on ‘pure originality’ in most of my postings, but I do make them as an educated man. (Indeed, I believe that few writers from any age were ‘purely original.)  I give credit to the commonly attributed source when I know it, but often use my lifetime of notes and thoughts generated by my past and current reading, personal experiences, and, yes, ‘inspiration’ to provide my material.  What the reader can count on is that I believe in that which I write and which I selectively share in the writings of others, and I believe these things can have a positive influence on those who read with an open mind and open heart. 

I also remind the reader of this essay that I originally started my weblog at the urging of my wife and for the benefit of my children and stepchildren and close friends.  Unfortunately, I believe that few of these loved-ones read these things anymore (or ever did) with any regularity.  I console myself that one infinitely greater than I faced the same difficulty: “And when [Jesus] was come into his own country, he taught them….[And] they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?  Is not this the carpenter’s son. . . ? And they were offended in him.  But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.  And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:54-58).  I am not a prophet, but I am a man who loves his family.

Lastly, as anyone who has read me knows, my postings are of a decidedly ‘moralistic’ flavor.  This is intentional.  It is intentional even at the expense of ‘offending’ potential readership.  Being a moralist in the 21^st Century is very out-of-style and out-of-step with the Millennial and even the late Baby-boomer generations.  But being a moralist, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (see Matthew 3:1-3) seems more and more in my old age to be my calling.  There are few who do it because of its ‘political incorrectness’ and because many good people have been cowed into submission because of the twisting of the terms ‘tolerance’ and ‘judgmental’ and even ‘bigoted’ or ‘mean-spirited.’ People who use these and similar terms are not on the high ground.  More often than not they are just strident self-justifiers of their own immorality.

The weight of the centuries—the values and virtues and principles that have sustained civilizations are at issue.  We devalue or disregard them at our own peril. I, for one, defend them unabashedly and invite others to come on board.