Is worth saying ... well?
They say that if you don't use it, you lose it. For the past 30 years, I have written something for some publication on a regular basis - daily newspapers, web sites, magazines, TV, radio, even a few books.
And then last May, when I walked away from being a sportswriter, I stopped writing
Cold turkey.
After thousands - if not millions - of words published or said for public consumption, I told myself I had nothing left to say.
And then when I actually tried to write, I froze - which only reinforced the possibility that I had no words left.
Maybe it is true. Trust me; I read enough on Facebook to know that just because people write something doesn't mean they really have anything meaningful to say.
I have always been deathly afraid of being one of those people.
Still, my learned brother tells me I need to continue writing because there is the real possibility that if you don't use it, you lose it.
So I decided to start back with this blog, following the example of my daughter SaraBeth ("Life in the Slow Lane'' at smelick.blogspot.com) and others that I have begun to follow.
Of course this is self-indulgent. All writing is, really. I mean, what makes anyone think they have anything to say that other people care about? Ego. I accepted that a long time ago.
In fact, I had a Christian writer by the name of Patrick Morley ("Man in the Mirror") admit as much to me while talking to him at a conference years ago in Birmingham. And that always bothered me, because I have always believed part of what we are called to do as Christians - followers of Christ, of which I am one - is to suppress our ego and pride to replace it with the servant-attitude of Christ.
Yet if God has given us a talent and, more specifically, a message, then it's wrong not to share that (just ask Jonah).
So the delimma becomes, is this ego? Or is it the correct use of a God-given and, hopefully, God-inspired gift (recognizing there are different levels of gifts, some greater than others. For example, the gift of C.S. Lewis' writing compared to, say, mine).
That, then, becomes the call of the reader.
Please don't tell me, however. Just read - if you stumble across this - and decide for yourself whether it's worth checking back on, or whether it's just my own ego-driven ranting and rambling on a wide-range of topics.
Because it will be wide-ranging. Sometimes it will be politics. Sometimes it will be faith. Sometimes it will be life and family and music and random observations.
And yes, sometimes it will be sports because that is what I have some measure of reputation for and some deeper level of knowledge.
To paraphrase: anything worth saying is worth saying well.
Of course, whether anything we say is indeed well-said is really in the ear of the listener or the eye of the reader.
As for me, I just feel the need to write again.
By the way, maybe at some point I'll go into further explaination of the title for my blog - not that it's all that complicated. But the "Eden'' I'm referring to is not that small town in East Alabama off the I-20 exit. It's "the Garden of ..."; the place the Bible says we all started but from which we have been banished; the home we've never known; that place deep down we all long to return to whether we realize it or not. I just happen to have realized a long time ago that I have a longing to live life in a way that doesn't seem to exist, that I was created for something different than the world I find myself in.
And if I long for some place else, a place that I can't find and have never known, then maybe it is some memory buried deep within my genetic code that I can't quite shake.
Some place like Eden.
I have a strange idea about where Eden really is. At least, my wife believes it is strange. It makes perfect sense to me. Maybe one day I'll get into that, too.
Until then ....
They say that if you don't use it, you lose it. For the past 30 years, I have written something for some publication on a regular basis - daily newspapers, web sites, magazines, TV, radio, even a few books.
And then last May, when I walked away from being a sportswriter, I stopped writing
Cold turkey.
After thousands - if not millions - of words published or said for public consumption, I told myself I had nothing left to say.
And then when I actually tried to write, I froze - which only reinforced the possibility that I had no words left.
Maybe it is true. Trust me; I read enough on Facebook to know that just because people write something doesn't mean they really have anything meaningful to say.
I have always been deathly afraid of being one of those people.
Still, my learned brother tells me I need to continue writing because there is the real possibility that if you don't use it, you lose it.
So I decided to start back with this blog, following the example of my daughter SaraBeth ("Life in the Slow Lane'' at smelick.blogspot.com) and others that I have begun to follow.
Of course this is self-indulgent. All writing is, really. I mean, what makes anyone think they have anything to say that other people care about? Ego. I accepted that a long time ago.
In fact, I had a Christian writer by the name of Patrick Morley ("Man in the Mirror") admit as much to me while talking to him at a conference years ago in Birmingham. And that always bothered me, because I have always believed part of what we are called to do as Christians - followers of Christ, of which I am one - is to suppress our ego and pride to replace it with the servant-attitude of Christ.
Yet if God has given us a talent and, more specifically, a message, then it's wrong not to share that (just ask Jonah).
So the delimma becomes, is this ego? Or is it the correct use of a God-given and, hopefully, God-inspired gift (recognizing there are different levels of gifts, some greater than others. For example, the gift of C.S. Lewis' writing compared to, say, mine).
That, then, becomes the call of the reader.
Please don't tell me, however. Just read - if you stumble across this - and decide for yourself whether it's worth checking back on, or whether it's just my own ego-driven ranting and rambling on a wide-range of topics.
Because it will be wide-ranging. Sometimes it will be politics. Sometimes it will be faith. Sometimes it will be life and family and music and random observations.
And yes, sometimes it will be sports because that is what I have some measure of reputation for and some deeper level of knowledge.
To paraphrase: anything worth saying is worth saying well.
Of course, whether anything we say is indeed well-said is really in the ear of the listener or the eye of the reader.
As for me, I just feel the need to write again.
By the way, maybe at some point I'll go into further explaination of the title for my blog - not that it's all that complicated. But the "Eden'' I'm referring to is not that small town in East Alabama off the I-20 exit. It's "the Garden of ..."; the place the Bible says we all started but from which we have been banished; the home we've never known; that place deep down we all long to return to whether we realize it or not. I just happen to have realized a long time ago that I have a longing to live life in a way that doesn't seem to exist, that I was created for something different than the world I find myself in.
And if I long for some place else, a place that I can't find and have never known, then maybe it is some memory buried deep within my genetic code that I can't quite shake.
Some place like Eden.
I have a strange idea about where Eden really is. At least, my wife believes it is strange. It makes perfect sense to me. Maybe one day I'll get into that, too.
Until then ....
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