Time to Think

And time to create. Weigh ideas and possible actions. Time to ponder and value many variables.

Time. Minutes, seconds. Hours and days.

Writing a book is a focused task. That is the reason I haven’t written a book yet. Blogs, editorials, newsletters, reports and countless emails, yes. Those are common and constant. But each of them focuses on specific topics. Pulled from the chaos of daily living, topics pop to mind. Writing about them is easy.

But a book? Yikes. What is the primary focus? That is the critical question.

My life has been involved in many things. Education is one. Community organization and projects to pursue. Building community via engagement of many individuals representative of the entire community. Health, finances both individuals and organizations. Formation of small businesses, formation of small nonprofit organizations, wellness and solving challenges of those small organizations. Church work, homeowner associations, city council membership, park commissioner board, community newspaper and editing it, and chamber of commerce leadership. All of these activities are in my resume.

Current events as well. Mostly political, such endeavors have consumed a lot of my time and focus. This is necessary if I am to be informed on community governance. Elections make sense when you know the issues over time and how they came to be.

For starters I considered this title – Being Me. Its focus is becoming and maintaining my individuality. That is not a biography, rather a working outline on how an individual manages the changes and peculiarities of his/her life. Over decades, we all live through the changes. We accept their challenges and gifts and labor through the negatives as well. Such experiences develop our perspectives, abilities and motivations. What elements of such a process are common in most lives? Which elements are distinct and different from most others?

In my case 8 decades of emergence as an individual is one element to focus on. Another is a sense of purpose and relevance. This involves some tricky questions like: “What do I want to be when I grow up?” and “How do I integrate many interests into a single life?” Both questions are difficult to articulate. Hence a book to provide the time and space for discussion and writing inclusively.

Specific elements of my life include becoming self-aware, dealing with sexuality and eventually determining my gay orientation, building family through marriage and child rearing, now grandchildren. Career evolution, too, is an element. Never a straight line, careers emerge involving many factors. What is the common element throughout that emergence?

Well, for now that is the direction of my thinking regarding a book. Will anyone want to read such a book? Who is to know. Along the way there may be opportunities to individuate the discussion that attracts readership. I can’t imagine managing that intentionally, so will let the story unfold.

Again, this is not a biography. It is a story of becoming and what affects that process. For now, that is all I have for a book. I’ll work on it and see if it supports the larger effort. I guess we shall see!

October 14, 2024

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intimacy

As we mature, we become deeply involved in relationships. Some of this is basic family relations – siblings, parental – and the like. Next is friends who enter our homes and we theirs. Neighbors, classmates, mutual hobbyists and so forth. Then we develop friendships that go much deeper. We comfort one another when we are hurting physically or emotionally. We discuss the matters of life and learn much more about ourselves and each other. We can even anticipate how others will react to various situations and stimuli. Good friendships do not spread to everyone we know. No, good friendships are special, close and deeply personal. We focus attention and brainpower on these few friends. Some special relationships focus on specific topics of interest and importance. Yes, we have specialized friendships. Most common. But one day, we get to know one person very well. An emotional connection forms with deep roots. A need to know the person more fully expands in personal ways. We sense this b...
Read more

Bits & Pieces

Pie: Apple pie more specifically. With Thanksgiving just passed, many of us enjoyed a good apple pie. Sure, there was pumpkin to accompany the turkey, but in our family multiple pies are offered in the holidays. Apple is surely one. Pecan, pumpkin and others, too. But I almost always choose apple. When I was in college, I was asked what kind of pie did I eat most often. In front of my mom, I answered apple, because I was always looking for a pie as good as mom’s own. Of course my mother was pleased, but it was a true statement just the same. When I was married, Ann’s pie was darned good. Her mother’s recipe. But we fiddled with the recipe until it took on its own generational name, and boy, was it good! Today I still order apple pie for dessert because I am always looking for a great pie to challenge our family recipes. I rarely do find such a prize. Do others do the same? Do you search for a great pie of choice, continually? If you do, what’s your story? Why do you do this? ...
Read more

Remembering Tom Sherlock

Tom Sherlock died on Wednesday, April 3rd. He was 65 years old and did not survive a heart surgery. That was his unexpected end and sad enough. But there is more to his story. Tom joined Dan Schuyler and George Safford to create what became the Village Chronicles, a weekly newspaper serving Warrenville, Illinois. That paper expanded to serve Winfield and then West Chicago. The paper published for eight years and built a good reputation for itself. Tom served the paper in several ways. He was our information technology guru, provided hardware and software to support the paper's operations. He was our sole bookkeeper, accountant and financial manager. He designed our distribution process and provided office space for meetings and layout and typesetting. His efforts supported the work of 32 volunteers who wrote and reported on the communities we served.  The newspaper broke even financially most of the time, but it was a struggle. Tom managed to find money to keep the newspaper afloat...
Read more