I was born around the beginning of the last third of the the twentieth century. I live on the west coast of the United States, a blessing for which I am extremely grateful. My father’s generation fought (and won) World War II, witnessed the greatest peacetime economic expansion in world history, sent men to the Moon and ended the Cold War. My generation grew up expecting to live like the Jetsons; what we got was $4-per-gallon gasoline, uncertain employment, unaffordable housing, and the very real possibility of being forced to make significant lifestyle changes to accommodate new realities. This will likely result–for many of us–in a lower standard of living than our parents enjoyed, despite our technological advancements. I am, however, not without hope.
I can say this because I have a degree of perspective. I hold a degree in history, summa cum laude and with Distinction in the Major, from the University of California (Santa Barbara), and I am all too aware that no nation or empire lasts forever. Amid the ashes of the old we build the foundations of the new, and it is through remembering the lessons of the past, and honoring the accumulated wisdom of those who went before, that we plot our future course.
Religiously speaking, I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian. This is by choice; my parents were Mormon and Presbyterian, and I was raised Lutheran for reasons of proximity. Prior to my conversion to Orthodoxy, my spiritual path led me through the Baha’i Faith. If this all sounds rather confusing, it means you’re normal.
Contacting Me
I encourage you to interact with me by leaving comments on the blog, or better yet, by writing about it on your own blog and linking back. Email is a problematic medium, increasingly filled with spam, and the sheer volume tends to ensure that anything truly interesting is drowned out. If, however, you’re determined to email me, you can do so via a contact form here. It uses a challenge-and-response model to verify the identity of the sender, which means you will have to enter a valid email address.
