History of my blog, part one

Since moving to the new digs yesterday I thought I might need to explain the new name for my blog. Back before I worked for the newspaper I wrote letters to the editor – a lot of letters. The editor at the time suggested that I might like to write a column. I was hesitant, I never wrote anything but letters to the editor and I did that as the spirit moved me, not on a deadline.

I decided to go ahead and my column was titled Through a glass, darkly. I wasn’t paid for the columns so they all still belong to me, if I am ever foolish or egotistical enough to gather them together in a book. After writing the columns for awhile a position opened up as a reporter. I took it and the columns went the way of the dodo and the passenger pigeon. Then the newspaper got serious about their Web site. They requested we all blog so I started one called Eschew Obfuscation.

A commenter started whining about the paper not covering a story the way he liked it and he cross-posted to all the blogs on the newspapers Web site. The webmaster took all the comments off but the guy kept popping up on my blog and posting comments about the paper not covering stories he wanted covered, we did a bad job and we were all in the pay of the city council, yada, yada, yada.

I warned him several times to keep his comments limited to the same subject as the posts but he kept it up. So I started deleting his comments. He didn’t like it so he went to corporate headquarters with a complaint. I was told only the editor or the publisher could delete comments so I stopped blogging on that site.

It’s now been several months and I couldn’t stay away. In my day job I have to be careful to screen my feelings out of the equation. I’m not perfect and sometimes they seep in but I do try. Since this is a blog it is personal and I can let my thoughts and feelings show through.

As for the name I decided to go back to the basics and take up the name of my column for this blog. It references 1 Corinthians 13:12

King James Version:
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

For those who prefer a more up-to-date version (but not nearly as lyrical)

New International Version:
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

For me it’s simple. I can only write about what I know, as much as I know. I can’t know everything so anything I say has to be understood as coming from someone who is doing the best he can as he sees it.

I like what Teddy Roosevelt said about critics – and I count myself among them:

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievements; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither defeat nor victory.”

I am on the sidelines, I know that. I do hope the observations I pass on are of some use to those who read them. I am comforted by what John Milton wrote:

On His Blindness
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.”