Well, being dragged kicking and screaming into the cybernetic age is taking another turn. Now I’m a blogger. Yikes! Some who go to the bother to view this page used to receive manuscripts every week of sermons I preached in their e-mail inboxes, and now that I am retired, they no longer have to be bothered by such unsolicited spam. So if they find themselves viewing this page, they have only themselves to blame. One advantage of this method is that it adapts more readily to feedback, dialog, two-way communication, should the reader wish to reciprocate. Another advantage is that such conversation promises to keep the brain’s synaptic functions stimulated, perhaps promoting mental health in the “mature” years.
Drawbacks to this method of communicating, it seems, are the possibility that it is more impersonal, a distasteful prospect from my perspective, and the impossibility posed by information overload. If everyone blogged, no one could possibly keep up with all the quadrillions of tidbits of chatter available in pages like this.
So, it seems a statement of purpose is in order: one discovery in retirement has to do with how memories, both good and bad, continuously return. Often seemingly out of the blue, there comes to mind the memory of particular individuals or events, sometimes long forgotten, and then I find myself asking such things as “Why is that episode resurfacing?” or “Why did I do that?” or “What is the source of such hostility?” or “How is that different from today?” Had I been more attentive in Pastoral Psychology classes when we were studying Erik Erickson’s “Stages of the Life Cycle,” I would not have been as surprised by this sorting-out process in the ending period of life. Now the issues have to do with being grateful for accomplishments as well as the contributions of others, and coming to terms with the residual sense of failure and reasons for guilt, embarrassment and roads not taken. So my attempt in these offerings is to be as honest as I know how about the past, and at the same time to explore (with you, I hope) possible implications for today and tomorrow.
My next blog may provide an example of the purported statement of purpose.
Forging on….
Jim N.
About Me
- Jim N.
- I'm a retired United Methodist Elder, somewhat disgruntled with the denomination in which I was raised. My dis-ease is partly due to the failure of the church to live up to its slogan of "open doors, open hearts, open minds," at the national legislative level. Some UM congregations are genuinely inclusive of all persons, but Church Discipline refuses to recognize the worth of all persons. Presently, I'm attending a Presbyterian Church. Another factor nudging my dismay is the seeming lack of democratic process in decision making; even councils and committees charged with areas of responsibility seem unaware of positiions and decisions they have supposedly sponsored and affirmed. My present activities include singing in a choir, reading, some writing, helping to take care of my mother-in-law who lives with us, and the never-ending chores around the house. I particularly enjoy in-depth conversations on both theoretical and practical levels.