Going into the Basement with a Slice of Humble Pie

Hi everyone (aka my two beloved readers),

I'm sorry a new post has been such a long time coming, but procrastination is just so easy, and gets easier with time. :)

I have learned a ton of stuff about myself, about life, and about God doing this blog over this last year, more than in the previous two decades, easily.

One of the key things I've learned about myself is that my ego and my ignorance are still way too big. I've done some reading over the last few months from some of our founding fathers, such as Thomas Paine. Turns out, my personal epiphany and all of the wonderful ideas I felt I needed to get the world to focus on were already shared, centuries ago. My ideas, even Goddism itself, were founded and believed in by wiser men than me during America's infancy. While they went with the Latin root for God and called the idea Deism, the focus on God is exactly the same. Deism, in essence, is knowing there is a God based on using our reason and examining the world and nature around us. Goddism = Deism in every possible way. Who knew?

This wouldn't be the first time I came up with un-researched ideas I thought were brilliant, just to find out they were old news: I did the same thing in graduate school when I wrote a 30-page research proposal and annotated bibliography for my thesis on anthropocentric development, just to be told by my committee chair that my idea was already old hat. It was tough to toss that one in the Lessons Learned pile and start over from scratch. But I did, and I will again.

Not to say doing this blog this last year has been a waste of time. If nothing else, it has helped me focus on God and living a better, fuller life, although I would also like to think it has helped others think about God more and find greater appreciation for God's wonderful and innumerable gifts.

So that's the humble pie from this entry's title, but what's with "going into the basement" you may ask? Although I haven't listened to his talk show in a few years, it used to be something Jim Rome said when he went on vacation. It's an expression that meant that he was going to a place to get leaner, tougher, and to get his focus back and then return better than ever.

I will be closing this blog, until at least this Fall, as this Summer will be crazy busy. I may consider moving my blog to a site with more traffic, but I will post any news of that if and when it occurs. I envision a different kind of website when I return, one with more fun, more activities, more audience participation and contributors, more pictures, more writings from other people, and, of course, more celebration of God.

For now, I leave you with only good and joyous thoughts, and a few reminders (you know how I am):

- Stay focused on God and doing good things for yourself as well as others

- Remember all evil stems from selfishness, so stay alert to it (both yours and others')

- Enjoy nature as often and as deeply as you can (it's pretty dang impressive art)

- Live with passion and joy

- Don't sweat the small stuff, for real

- Thank God constantly

- Breathe deeply

- Be the first to smile


That should get you to Fall. I'll get back to more pontificating then. :)


God is great!



p.s. If you want to learn more about Deism, here are a few websites to check out:

http://moderndeism.com/index.html
http://deism.com/
http://www.positivedeism.com/index.html