For some time I had remembered that I had a blogspot account and I wondered if it was still active. I don't know what spurred me to check, but surprise, it is still here. More surprising than this still being around, and that I still had the password to this account, was the contents in it.
At first I thought that maybe someone else had gotten access to my account and wrote down their thoughts! I really only remember writing the "Memory Eternal" post about 21 years ago. All of the other ones I have only the faintest of inklings.
Coming from a much more mature time and place, I thought that some of the things I wrote would be very cringy. Again surprise! I was rather pleased that I wasn't completely embarrassed by what I wrote. That said, I don't think that they are necessarily great or that my viewpoint has not changed, but I think they are decent enough that I am still happy to have them on this blog.
But I still wonder, "Who wrote this stuff?" I know it seems like a weird question to ask, especially since I have already claimed ownership. But I almost don't recognize either the text or the thoughts that led me to write them down. 21 years is a long time, but I think there is something else going on.
Age is a funny thing. The wider perspective that (older) age gives is something I am still trying to grasp. On the downside, I don't feel as knowledgeable as the younger man who wrote these things. I don't feel as "put together" as the person that wrote these posts seems to be. Maybe it is life experience, maybe it is that I do not have as much energy as I did then. I am still passionate about the Church and the Faith, but the years of conflicts with myself and my sin, the years of judging myself and others. The years of slings and arrows of the evil one. Maybe just the years! I am much more circumspect in my worldview. My understanding of life and faith seems more confused now then the author of these earlier posts.
I am a little confused in general. I thought that my knowledge and understanding and faith would be so much more developed by now. But rereading these posts made me realize that maybe I haven't grown as much as I thought. Far from being saddened by this, I think I am a little invigorated. I am wondering if I still have it in me to write something interesting from my perspective. Also, since I do not have a trail of thoughts for the past 16 years, maybe I need to keep a journal of thoughts, so that I have something with which to remember my ideas and my thoughts, and maybe see progress.
So, God willing, I will attempt to post a few more things here and see how it goes. Although I acknowledge, and wish to remind any reader, that "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord." -Isaiah 55:8, I do it not because my thoughts are somehow new, interesting, or groundbreaking, but simply because it is sometime nice to remember the ideas one had in the past.