limen, -inis. n. 1. The threshold, verge
My father was born in 1924. When he came into the world, the Golden Gate Bridge did not exist, jet lag had never been experienced, air conditioning and plastic were basically unknown, and digital computers hadn’t been invented. The lives of most humans alive at the moment he was born were not so dissimilar from the lives of the hundred previous generations.
My youngest child was born in 2009. She lives in a world of self-driving cars, country-sized swirls of plastic garbage in the ocean, international video calling, social media, and artificial intelligence. The world of 1924 is as foreign to her as the world of 1524.
I was born in the middle–at the moment of transition between old and new. My father’s generation was the last of the pre-digital old world. My children’s generation is the first purely of the fully online, digital new world. My generation stands with a foot in each.
This blog is the place I put my thoughts as I wrestle for truth and explore both the beauty and the ugliness of our changing world.
About the Content Here:
I have been thinking and writing most of my life. I created this site first and foremost as a resource for myself to maintain a record of my intellectual and writing history. As a result, I have put into practice here a couple of conventions it would be helpful for a reader to keep in mind:
1. Content is dated for when it was written, not when it was posted.
After many blogging false starts, this site was established in earnest in early September, 2021. All content posted before that time was written earlier and is posted with the date of original authorship or publication.
2. Content is posted as it was written, even if I no longer agree with it.
Part of my commitment to myself is to be honest about my own intellectual history. The world has changed much in my lifetime, and I–like most of us–have as well. My intellectual journey has been long, at times painful, and still continues. I have not censored my past self. Where I have felt the need, I have added editorial comment on my past writings and dated those comments with the date they were written.
3. Content is all original and comes from a variety of contexts.
Over more three decades or writing, I have written in many contexts for a variety of purposes: letters, reports, Facebook posts or comments, school papers, and poems are a few examples. My objective here is to collect the best, most interesting, or most representative material, primarily as a record for myself that I control, but also as a means to share it with others on the chance that my perspective and experience—formed as it has been through a unique moment in history—may bring benefit or enjoyment.
About Me:
I’m a 45-year-old white son of west coast, middle-class privilege. My father was a physician in Southern California from the 60s through the 80s. I was born in 1978. My upbringing was strongly religious. I was homeschooled or attended conservative Christian schools all the way through my MA in English in 2001.
I am strongly analytical and strongly verbal by nature. What gifts I have in other arts, such as music, are studied and analytical rather than innate and creative. I create music as I prepare food—by following the recipe.
I am a systems thinker. One of the only real natural gifts I have is the ability to quickly and intuitively grasp the relationship between parts in a system (of whatever kind and scale) and to predict the effects to the system from changes to its constituent parts. This ability serves me well in my day job in IT security.
I have spent much of my adult life learning to question the conservative, Evangelical presuppositions and conclusions inculcated in me during my formative years and seek truth on my own terms. This is an ongoing effort that after years of doubt and depression has found me still living a life of faith. My approach to truth is rational and analytical. I am committed to following the evidence at whatever cost.
I am passionate about the environment and environmental sustainability. If we lose this battle (and I believe we are losing it), the system of life on earth as we know it may fail.