No, I will not be blogging every night. Likely, not even close. Preview, just in case you want to skip this one: no meat here, saving that for next blog, this is another intro, but more in depth.

I feel it is necessary to bring you all a bit deeper into my plans for this blog; where I am coming from and where I am hoping to go.

I also want to lay down some ground works for comments and interactions around these words and thoughts I am sharing. Basically, this is my world, so I get to make the rules. (Wow, saying that felt way too good.)

Let’s start with some rules.

1) I will not tolerate hate speech of any kind.

2) I encourage debate, but may not always engage. This is a source for catharsis for me, not stress. If I get stressed on something, I ain’t got time fuh that.

3) Language. I really don’t care if you curse, as long as it is thoughtfully done and important to your point. I do want to have a blog that I can feel proud of and comfortable having my kids read. Please note: I have no desire to shelter my kids from language, or censor too much (although they are still very young) especially to the point that they are judgmental of a person’s character upon hearing a colorful word. They are not living in a cave.

4) This is a safe place to post. I will do everything within my power to allow you to post your true thoughts and feelings, even if they are completely opposite of my own. This give and take is what will refine our individual world view, which in my opinion, will refine how we all live our lives and treat each other. Let’s engage around these thoughts and topics. I crave the mental stimulus.

5) I can add more rules at any time.

Back ground!

I think too much. No,… I don’t mean that I am a super deep thinker. I mean that it usually takes me a lot of thought to dig deeply into something. Sometimes I get buried in my thoughts. A method that I have used since I was a kid to work through stuff is to just write it all down. Much of what I ponder are things that I am pretty self-conscious about, or heavy, or moral dilemmas; just lots of stuff that usually is not very good for casual conversation.

I am a family man. I have an amazingly lovely, smart and witty wife. She is far more well-read and smart than me. She is part of this. She will be reading and helping me sound smart, as she is able. I have two kids who are each smarter than either my wife or me. Together, they are a force of nature. You will hear plenty about them too, I am sure.

I have a very VERY religious background. I will tell you straight from the beginning, I have shed most of those religiosities.However, I do still maintain my own version of a spirituality. Many think that this is dangerous and prideful. I appreciate that they care about me enough to share that. Here is where many of you will learn about my spirituality. Some of you will think I am CrAzY. Some of you will agree. Most of you will be left with a new idea or thought to bounce off of your own spirituality, which is one of my main goals in sharing.

I feel really weird about this whole thing. I wonder whether this is an adventure traveling deep into my own pride, or whether this is altruistically sacrificing my own pride in order to start some conversations. I am torn, my friends. It is that feeling of being torn that I am relying on to cue my confidence in this having at least some merit. I have also resolved to just move toward things that bring me joy, comfort, openness, lead me toward good people, and follow in the advice of people for whom I care.

I am not an English major. Grammar issues, spelling issues, typos, confusing speech patterns, they are all gonna happen. Bare with me.

I told you I think too much about things.

More about me:

These are things most of you know, but I’m going to throw them in for good measure.

I love food and flavor. We will dig into these things here. We will get into some of my spiritual, philosophical, and sociological views on these kinds of things. I am not just into coffee. Coffee is my profession, and coffee is my window into the world. Other windows exits in my life, however. I cannot wait to dig into these topics more!!

I love philosophy, but have a short attention span and don’t read enough to have made it a career. Coffee was much more viable. It feeds my hyper-active tendencies. Age has begun to mellow these a bit, so, I hope we can bring some of the philosophical conversation into this blog. Don’t freak on me. Philosophy is more than just the words written by old rich white dudes who had the financial wherewithal to sit and think/write all day. Ok… That is a lot of it. BUT!! You and I can practice philosophical discourse. I have no interest in mental gymnastics and/or prideful false philosophical musings. This is NOT a pride-fest (no offense to the “Pride Fest”) but is only a blog. I have no delusions of grandeur. I am not smarter than you. But, together, with tempered, thoughtful, respectful discourse, we are both smarter. Right?

This is not all going to be heavy, deep, spiritual stuff. I will likely post random stuff here, like recipes, anecdotes from my kids, fishing tips, cooking techniques, cocktail adventures, stories, random thoughts, etc…

I want you to be a part of this thing.

LASTLY!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!

Thank you so much for being with me. Thank you for sharing life with me and my family. I am pumped about what this means for us as a family, and us: you and me.