What’s in a Name?

First was Bear.  Then along came Alex.  Sadly, he died young.  Now, there is Allie.  If I extend back over a few decades Barney was also a part of my life.

In some respect, way , shape, form, joint committee-on-collaboration or random pronouncement, I decreed upon them a name.  They were, or are, my dogs!   Can I getta’ “Woof Woof?”

What’s your pet’s name?

Over the years, as I experienced life with these dogs, I also experienced the dog.  Each had a uniqueness, a presence about them, and their corresponding mannerisms, likes and dislikes, even their bark, that defined them.  This uniqueness now associates itself with their name in my memory.  Filed under, “Alex,” is the that he would get tired enough on a hot summer walk he would just lay down in the middle of the walk.   He was done.  “Bear,” needed to roam and our backyard fence provided slim resistance to the alpha-male drive in him.  Barney barked all the time, Allie has a bladder control issue:(

Now the time arrived, the only such time that has ever happened in the history of the created universe, by-the-way, when I must name my blog.

Of course I could call it, “Barney, Bear, Alex or Allie,” but then I might think the blog was a lazy, barking, wetting mess of a place to be.  I’d never come back!  So I needed a new name.

Obviously the low-hanging fruit of a name would be, “Mike’s Blog,” or something like that.  That felt, well, both a little too self-focused and lacked the unique snowflake-like individuality I sought.

If I named it after one of my children, or my wife, that might be cool and honoring.  But then what if it goes bad?  Or I quite before writing more than a baker’s dozen contributions, and all that I write has the quality and content of burnt bread made without yeast!  No, to risky to tie anyone else, especially my family, into this endeavor.  Even if it’s only via namesake.

Have you ever tried to be spontaneously creative?  You know, just effuse a bubble of brilliance at a moments notice?  Many of us, at times, flash brilliant in unexpected ways and circumstances, like the middle of the night, laying in bed, dreaming of something or other.  Or driving in traffic.  Or showering.  Amazing ideas, inventions, concepts or other seem to happen upon us.  Only to be forgotten, of course, as the strong current of life sweeps and scatters these nuggets of gold into pieces not discernible beyond the moments of their creation.  But to just come up with something on command?!?  Difficult.

Then, arriving at your best on demand creative effort, you second guess the result.  At least if you are similar in temperament to me you do.  Thoughts like, “It’s okay, but not the best,” or, “this is really stupid but it’s all I’ve got.”  This is the GPS coordinate of my mindset now, as I talk about the name of my blog.

I’ve elected to call it, “Think2020!”  What?  No spontaneous eruptions of, “OOO,” and “AAhhh?”   Well, then, let me tell you more.  Clearly there is a misunderstanding in the universe.

This blog the outgrowth of me thinking the best I can.  In life I talk with friends and colleagues, observe others, read many books, read the Bible, listen to sermons, pray, and think.  The thinking being done is about this, that, or the other think and at the end of the process I hope to have arrived at good conclusions or understandings.  Then I try the conclusions out and begin thinking all over again.  I’d offer a diagram for this process but my diagrammatic skills are about as effective as my fence was at keeping Bear contained.  So please just envision random scribbles over a sheet of white paper, maybe using three or four colors.  Congratulations, you have just diagrammed my thought process!!

But wait, there’s more (said in an excited voice)!  There is also the, “2020,” part of the name.  What’s that about?

The theory goes, or so I’ve told myself, if I can think, and think clearly, the result will be a correct understanding of the universe.   Said differently, I will see clearly, or have 20/20 vision, so to speak!  Get it??

So I’ll blog about stuff I think about, how I think, the conclusions I come to and how they enable me to see clearly the events of the life I live.   Two things it would be great if I could get a little help with here, though.

One, please act like a newly installed guard-rail and prevent me from flying off the highway of life, over the edge of foolish error, and smashing on the rock of ridiculous below.

Two….eh, just do one for now.  There is no benefit for me to be greedy and if I get a little help with one I will be far far better off then I am today.

Now my reminder just went off suggesting (I don’t like to be bossed around) that it is time for me to round up the family and leave for Church.  Today we are scheduled to hear about the extreme commitment of being a disciple of Christ.  I’ll touch base with you later, I need to think about this…..

Think2020

Mike

In The Beginning Was “Nobody”

Hello to….NOBODY!!  Welcome to my blog!

Listen, no, I’m not calling you nobody.  You are definitely somebody!  The problem I have is your not here!

What I mean is that I don’t really expect anyone to read this.  Yet, I’m writing it.  In a sense I find that behavior, well,

odd.

Who writes if he genuinely expects nobody to read it?  Why not just think what you are about to write and save yourself time, effort, and the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome?

For that I do not have an answer.  Do you?  Wait…there’s nobody here.  I keep forgetting:)

Maybe inside I secretly hope this little blog o’mine will, somehow, go “viral” and be a smash Internet hit!  Wait…that comment was something I was only supposed to think.  Did I write it out loud?  How self-serving!

In all as-seriousness-as-I-offer, I am starting a little blog to keep track of my thoughts with respect to life, thinking, things contained in the Bible and how we choose to live our lives.  My goals, at least for now, are these:

A.  To Entertain: 

You laughing, or smiling, or minimally,  the corners of your little mouth turning up, is my top goal.   Is that lame?  Yeah, maybe.  Or maybe it’s lame to admit that’s my goal, and not world peace or the reduction of green house gases (or, frankly, burrito-induced gases), or whatever.  But, to me, everything goes better with the seasoning of humor, wit, a dash of sarcasm and a sprinkle of whimsy.  Having none of the above I’ll simply go for low-hanging humor as often as I can.

As a hint for the reader, my humor typically is oriented around word-play, can be subtle, always makes me laugh, usually is irreverent, and is very funny if you like it and stupid if you don’t.

B.  To Blow Your Mind:

Some of you people reading this (I keep denying the reality no one real is going to read this – no that someone fake is going to read it either) have been involved in Adult Bible Studies, Small Bible Study groups or the like with me.  You know I think to much, over-process, and come up with off-wall-ideas.   I recall with fondness the empty silence greeting me following my diatribe of a deep philosophical observation that profoundly shaped my psyche!  In fact, sharing these thoughts worked so well in small group I thought the vastness of the Internet might benefit, too!  Argh…what am I doing??

Doesn’t matter, I am doing it!   Self-doubt be vanquished beneath the foundation of resolve!

What will I attempt to blow your mind with?  Whatever blows mine.  Frankly, I’m just tired of being alone with my mind in this condition and need a friend to join me.  Take my metaphorical hand and run with me into the land of thought and laughter with unashamed zeal!

Topics I have on deck include 1) naming a blog, 2) life’s purpose (I have the answer!) 3) covetousness (I’m against it), 4) my favorite pizza and 5) planned spontaneity, is it to sudden?  I’d invite you back, but, again, don’t believe anyone is really here.

C.  To Entertain Myself

’nuff said (to use a very out-dated colloquialism)?

D.  To See If I Can

Yep, like it’s neighbor the letter C, the letter D also is a bit self-serving.  If I do letters A and B well, though, C and D should be inconsequential to you, nobody.  But here is the deal – I think I can write about stuff and do it semi-to-pretty well.  So I think, anyway.  This blog, then, becomes my chance to prove it to me.  After all, if I just think it it matters not.   To be truly valuable, to leave a mark, to shape a nation…sorry, carried away…one must do!

One time I thought I was a fast sprinter, then I raced someone.  Guess what?  Yes, right, I am not a fast sprinter.  One time I thought I’d be able to run a fast marathon, too.  Four hours and forty minutes later, nearer to death then I’ve ever been, I realized I am not a fast endurance athlete.  But the point isn’t in what I wasn’t, but that by doing it, by extending myself and at least trying, I learned something about myself and how God has wired me up.   Have you ever tired something just to see if you could?  Well, this blog is my written “sprint”…wanna race??

A,B,C and D are why I am here, doing this, for nobody and yet wondering if, by some meshing of IP packets across the vastness of the Internet, some foreign reader may land upon my blog, let out a chuckle and comment, “I feel like a duck ’cause I ate to many “quackers” from Nabisco!”  Is it you?

 

-Mike

 

p.s. – It’s my blog, spelling and grammar count but only marginally.  The main thing is the idea communicated!!