Firearms Friday: Continuing The Dialogue

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a “Firearms Friday” post which was requested by a friend. I did what I could to address their original query but had no illusions that it would be an answer to their question. There are simply too many aspects to this whole discussion to offer a definitive response but it was a means to have a respectful dialogue. And so, with that in mind, below is their response to that post:

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question seriously. I really do appreciate it. Like you, I'd rather have smart laws and knee jerk reactions. As you say you may not be an expert, but you have more experience on this topic than I do and can point out the flaws in my arguments. My goal is a reduction in gun violence and I don't really care much how we get there, as long as it's a path that works and not a token effort.

Here are my immediate thoughts:

When I've been thinking about the problem of shootings I've been dividing it into three categories: one-on-one (most self defense cases would fall into this category, I imagine), one-on-many (mass shootings) and many-on-many (gang violence maybe?). I'm mostly concerned about the one-on-many, mass shooting case. I'm looking for ways that could render a gun less effective when attacking a crowd that would have minimal impact in the one-on-one case, and thus minimal impact on self defense uses. In our legal system it is considered inhumane to maim. If lethal force is warranted you are supposed to take lethal force. That is a sentiment I support. To be 100% clear: If your family is threatened, I want you to be able to defend yourself with lethal force.

I do think there are ways we can make guns less lethal in the one-on-many case that have little impact in the one-on-one case since. Bullet ricochet increases the number of casualties, whereas (I believe) it is a virtually non issue in most self defense cases. It's my understanding that most (all?) bullets are deadly, but not all bullets are equally effective at passing through a person harming the person behind them. Most one-on-one situations don't require dozens of dozens bullets be fired in mere seconds. This is why the arguments of limiting gun magazine sizes, limiting bullet caliber, and firing rate make so much sense to me. (Guns are machines and it is possible to engineer them to fire no faster than a specific rate, regardless of how fast one can pull the trigger.) For a one-on-one scenario, there is no rushing the shooter/person defending themselves. In a one-on-many such changes might give the crowd a chance. At least the casualty count should be lower.

I was unaware that there was a sport dedicated to conduct speed reloads. How long does it take the average-to-above-average person to reload? If it's non trivial, than limiting capacity sizes still makes sense to me. I think (hope) most would be mass shooters are not in the elite class.

I strongly agree with both your points that gun violence is glorified in the media, and that the way the media reports on shootings encourages copycats. I have no idea how this can be addressed given the first amendment.

I also agree that we as a nation need more support for mental health issues. What's less clear to me is what this kind of approach would look like, especially since mental health status can change. I think it's a noble, but unrealistic goal to catch everyone who would commit a mass killing before they have a chance to follow through. Besides, hate is protected under the first amendment. One cannot be committed saying people of a certain race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or anything else should be executed. (David Duke is a terrifying example of this.)

I know I will not change your opinion on the matter, but I support gun free zones. For what it's worth, I don't think the intention behind gun free zones is to prevent intentional shootings. As you, and others, have pointed out, there's nothing magical about a gun free zone that keeps bad guys with guns out. Rather, I thought gun free zones are intended to limit guns from areas where thinking may be impaired (such as places that serve alcohol) or judgement lacking (schools). They're intended to prevent heated arguments and rash decisions from turning into tragic mistakes. While I agree with you that we should hold the shooter responsible for his or her own actions, it's little solace to the person whose life was lost. In these situations I feel the potential for tragic accidents is so great it warrants special treatment.

In this response I will focus on where we seem to be the furthest apart. Let us begin by discussing “limiting gun magazine sizes, limiting bullet caliber, and firing rate” which, to this person, seem to be the options that make the most sense regarding the prevention of mass shootings while having little to no impact on the ability to defend themselves. Unfortunately, this is a flawed argument as the assumption is that “there is no rushing of the person defending themselves”. On the contrary, in many self-defense scenarios there is immense pressure for quick and effective action as seconds count… if you hesitate you are most likely dead. Further, under duress the use of multiple rounds is commonplace. This makes all three of the above options dangerous in a self-defense situation.  

While caliber is something that is thoroughly discussed within the firearms community the simple fact of the matter is that in a self-defense situation accuracy diminishes and stopping power and capacity play critical roles in eliminating the threat. Further, there is no predicting the size of the assailant or how they will be dressed so, personally, I would prefer to have a little more punch than average. Over-penetration is a reality which is why anyone with a reasonable amount of training (and, in my opinion, anyone who owns a firearm) should always be aware of their surroundings and what is behind their intended target. The final point in this is that limiting calibers is a slip and slide that I don’t car to ride as it is nearly impossible to enforce, it would put those who reload in a precarious position, and, most importantly, it is completely against the rights for which I stand.

Rate of fire is something that is already regulated as automatic weapons are classified as Class III firearms and only legal for ownership with those who undergo the scrutiny of the ATF application process (and pay the tax). To regulate rate of fire would not only be dangerous in a self-defense situation but would add over-complication to a rather elegant mechanism. We don’t need to Rube Goldberg firearms… look what that thought process has done to our government.

As for “gun free zones”, the idea that these places are made any safer by eliminating the presence of legal firearms is preposterous. It has proven, time and again, to be a fallacy… nothing more than a means to provide a “warm and fuzzy” feeling for some people. Anyone who has carried a firearm and knows others who carry on a regular basis knows that the one thing that maintains a person’s even temperament is not a sign but the fact that they are carrying a firearm. Those who accept this responsibility also accept the fact that they must go above and beyond when it comes to keeping calm in precarious or stressful situations. This also means that those who responsibly carry will not allow themselves to enter into an altered state of rage or intoxication.

While I would like to say that there is an answer to preventing, as a whole, the practice of mass shootings in this country that is simply not a part of reality. I have already made a few suggestions regarding how we can go about addressing the issue of mass shootings but they are by no means a way to “solve” the problem. The best way that we, as a society, can face this is to come to terms with the fact that this is the reality in which we live. And while the contrary is reported on the daily news, this persons primary objective has already been realized... shooting deaths and gun violence continue to decline while gun sales continue to rise.

However, an important point to remember is that while this person, and many others, continue to make statements regarding the importance of the first amendment and how it limits our ability to address certain statements, stances, and positions that heinous people take, those same people are willing to do anything to limit the second amendment. Remember, the only reason that the second amendment is second is so the first amendment has backup. Why is it that so many people are willing to acknowledge that heinous people are outliers regarding the beauty and effectiveness of the first amendment but those who commit heinous acts are representative of those who support the second amendment? While the person with which I am having this discussion isn’t one of these extremists, the position is all too common.  

If we really want a solution to the situation that we find ourselves in it would be to face the reality that there is evil in this world. Evil people will commit evil acts and we need to confront that evil head on by defending ourselves, defending others, and eliminating the threat when we are threatened. We can’t rely on government in general or legislation in particular. If anything, we need to eliminate the hurdles that continue to plague law abiding gun owners. We must educate ourselves, our families, and our fellow citizens about firearms. We must respect what they can do and appreciate the freedom that they represent. So, my advice is simple, go to a range. Understand, appreciate, and respect firearms. Teach one another. And never allow yourself to be helpless and maintain your self-reliance. I’m sure that this is not the response that they were looking for but it is an honest response and one that has proven, time and again, to be the most effective was to address the issues that we are currently facing.

I Got A Response From @Montel_Williams

Every once in a while I get a little surprise on social media as much of the content I produce is simply caste into the vacuum to never be heard from again. Bear in mind that this is primarily due to my lack of correspondence through these sites. I really need to work on that. But, sometimes, someone catches one of my posts and comments, likes, retweets, or responds to what I wrote. Sometimes they agree and other times there is not a grain of agreement to be found.

The truly surprising part is when I recognize the name with these likes, shares, and responses. Most of the time these come from friends or family while other times they come from people whom I have never met before like back in June when Montel Williams responded to my post following the massacre in Orlando. The response was simple but addressed the core of what I was addressing in my blog. Frankly, I was just surprised that he took the time to respond which does say a lot about how he chooses to engage with people as a whole.

Bear in mind that I fervently disagree with many of the comments and confrontations that can be found when browsing through his account but he takes the time to listen and respond. Additionally, he takes the time to share his opinions and I have to respect someone who is willing to be vocal about what they believe whether or not I agree with them. However, there are many people with whom I disagree, many friends and family in fact, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t respect their opinion. Although some opinions are so far out there that I can’t respect them. But there are also times when we find a common ground like I did with Mr. Williams in our brief exchange over Twitter.

And this is the main point that I want to drive home with this post. There have been numerous people that have tested my patience and temperament through various social media sites in recent years and especially in recent weeks. And, honestly, I am sure that I have done the same through many of the things that I have posted. However, I have also invited many people to have a dialogue knowing full well that we will probably never come to an agreement on many topics. I don’t unfriend or unfollow people when I disagree with them and I don’t leave visceral comments to posts. I try to engage with them outside of the public forum.

We have to remember that we all possess different views colored by a diverse collection of life experiences. Many times there will not be any common ground to be found but, every once in a while, we find something in common… sometimes it is how similar events in our lives have taken us in drastically different directions while other times it is the surprise when we find ourselves agreeing on a topic despite our differences. This is a time for discussion not divisiveness but also a time when we cannot be afraid to share our views and opinions.

So, when you read much of what I write remember that I am open to discussing just about anything. You may not like what I have to say and I may not like what you have to say but that doesn’t mean that we can’t talk and it doesn’t mean that we will disagree on everything (although that is a possibility). How does that sound Mr. Williams?

Filling The Planner

It is amazing how fast my daily planner has filled up this year. As soon as I purchased the paper planner at the beginning of the year, I quickly started filling in the events and appointments that I had on hand at the time. This included work, lodge, personal and other reminders of what each day had in store for me. It has also served me well in scheduling different topics for the blog and had come in handing on a number of occasions both as a means to remind me of what I am writing about but, more importantly, of where I can move some topics when another blog needs to be written right away.

While some, many in fact, will see my bound paper planner as an antiquated form of organization, it still remains the most efficient form for me. Not only do I seem to do better when I am able to write things down, cross items off, and budget my time accordingly, it also forces me to slow down and remember what I am putting into my schedule. This is especially true for work engagements as it is too easy to simply accept a calendar invite. By pulling out my planner and recording the meeting, I tend to recall the commitment days earlier rather than fifteen minutes prior.

Of course, the most important part for me is the simplicity of this paper based system. I still enjoy writing many things by hand and editing documents by hand and having this out has allowed me to maintain my tactile focus without the constant windows and websites loading in the background just beyond the word document. It also eliminates the digital clutter that can become commonplace in an industry that relies so heavily on the digital world. Even when crossing off multiple items and shifting appointments around, the physical paper still seems cleaner than the digital jumble.

Another benefit of this ‘old school’ system has been the fact that I am able to schedule anything I need to without having to consult my computer or smart phone. It is a system that still transcends generations and given the frequent communication I have with many older generations, this can be a huge asset. Lastly, there is a sense of permanence and obligation when you write down a meeting in front of someone. The digital divide is still alive and well so appointments change regularly when simply typed into a computer or phone. Write down an appointment in front of someone and they tend to honor that arrangement more regularly.

In the end, I guess I am one of the few remaining that still prefers the physical planner over the digital calendar. In a sense, there is something a little out of touch about this method and I am okay with that. I don’t mind being ‘behind the times’ as it pertains to how I go about my day. There is a calmness to nostalgia and the simpler way of doing things that seems to be lost in most technology. All of these things are designed to make our lives easier but is that really what they are doing? For me, the pendulum swings both ways and sometimes it is nice to swing into the past.

Book Update: Finally, Some Progress!

One of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year was to pull together many of the collections of poems and essays that I have compiled over the years and publish them. I have considered this endeavor in the past but was never able to see it to the end. Well, over the past couple of months, I was finally able to see many of those projects come to fruition. It took some time, a considerable amount of energy, and a few dollars but I was finally able to get four books published through Author House.

The first book that I worked on was a collection of poems that I wrote as an undergraduate student at Endicott College. All of the poems in the collection were written at that time, many of them published both in literary journals and in a limited run I pulled together with a local print shop at the time titled Teaching A Stone To Talk: Nature Poems. I am still grateful for the help that I received from Carol Raiche for the formatting the modest book and putting me in touch with the printer.

Now, accompanied with photos taken over the past decade, these poems are once again available in the collection Paintings In Under A Thousand Words: Nature Poems.

Many of the poems found in these pages are all but memories of experiences that have colored my early life. Some see these moments as glimpses of a time past but I see them as paintings formed in slow deliberate strokes that highlight the details of life that instill the feeling of accomplishment when looking at your past. These images don't need the long drawn out descriptions laden with unnecessary letters, they are flashes quick to flood the mind and equally fast in fading back deep into the gray matter. This is why I see these poems, these memories of my encounters with nature, as paintings in under a thousand words.

The next book to be edited was a project that I started while at Endicott and which later served as my Master’s thesis at Rosemont College. The first sequence of poems was published previously both as individual poems in various literary journals and in my first official chapbook, Kaddish Diary, which was published in 2005 by Pudding House Publications. This small collection has long since been out of print and even one of the anthologies that included a couple of the poems has since gone out of print as well. In the years following the publication of the chapbook, I created two additional sequences based on two other works of holocaust literature. However, this collection also remained nearly forgotten on a flash drive for nearly a decade. Now, I have finally brought this project of passion to light in What Was Not Said: Echoes From The Holocaust.

The Holocaust is a subject all of us are aware of but there are countless accounts that are seldom heard. Based on the diaries, letters, and memoirs of Hertha Feiner, Janusz Korczak, and Filip Müller, these poems describe the life surrounding these writings. Every memoir has something missing. This is not a conscious decision by the author; it is the perspective of the writer filtered through the impermanence of memory. Sometimes it is a forgotten foreshadowing phrase said in passing or what is happening outside when their focus is on the room in which they are sitting. These are the aspects painted in this collection.

The next two collections will be quite familiar to many of you as they are collections of posts from this blog. The first of these books consolidated all of the genealogy posts and is really only the first of many that I expect on this topic. It highlights both the process and the discoveries that I have made over the years and includes many family photos and documents that many in the family may have not seen before. I am glad to finally be able to share many of these colorful leaves with the rest of the family in Out On The Limbs: Searching For Answers In The Family Tree.

This is collection which illustrates how one family tree can give shade to the entirety of American history. Each leaf has a little more to add to my family history just as each piece of fall foliage adds to an autumnal landscape. All different trees offering a different variety of colors but working in unison to tell the same story. These essays offer a cross section of topics which includes recent additions to my family tree, interesting resources or programs, and discoveries that have given greater depth to the lives of my ancestors.

The final project in this initial push is the one that means the most to me. Again, these are posts from the blog which spans the past year and a half. This time around, I collected all the posts about the pregnancy and my first year of fatherhood into a single volume. You could even say that this is a baby book taken to the next level. For me this book is a gift to my son and hopefully something that first time parents, especially fathers, will enjoy. After all, it does tell the reader about The Good, The Bad, And The Adorable: My First Year As A Father.

After my son was born I found myself having conversations with other parents about some of the interesting things that I should anticipate happening during the first year. I had not heard about any of these antidotes before and so I wanted to start writing more regularly about these usually humorous occurrences. Arranged chronologically, this book is a collection of both those early posts of doctor appointments and preparations for arrival as well as the more interesting moments that I experienced during my first year as a father.

Well, that is what has been keeping me busy over the last couple of months and partly why there have been times when I have fallen behind on these daily posts. There are other books that I am currently working on but that is a completely different post for another day. In the meantime, if you happen to read any of these books I would appreciate hearing your thoughts and, hopefully, they proved to be worth the purchase price. Four down and countless volumes to go!

Back To Rotary: Upcoming Presentations

When I felt my phone vibrate I immediately thought it was one of the usual family or lodge suspects sending me an update or asking me a question. What I didn’t expect to read when I opened up my text messages was a request from the President of the Rotary Club of Bala Cynwyd – Narberth to be a guest speaker at one of the upcoming meetings. While it has been some time since I was last a regular member, I am still proud to hold the title of Honorary Rotarian and it will certainly be a privilege and pleasure to reconnect with the people who have continued to support me despite my long absence. Following our brief conversation, I will not only have one opportunity to revisit this find group but two opportunities to join them for lunch in the coming months.

The first presentation I will be making is on the transforming my everyday experiences into a daily blog and, recently, into a collection of books. I started my blog while still very active with the club and I have continued writing daily posts. Now numbering over a thousand, I have begun the process of transforming those posts into essay collections on individual topics.

The first book to result from this effort is The Good, The Bad, And The Adorable: My First Year As A Father which recounts all the moments from the time my wife and I found out we were having a baby all the way through my son’s first birthday. I guess you could call it a baby book on steroids. The second book, Out On the Limbs: Searching For Answers In The Family Tree, was released at the same time and includes many of the family stories that have been passed down to me as well as the recreations of some of the lives of my ancestors which I have pieced together through years of research. Of course, there are numerous more on the way this year but this gives you a sense of the subject of this presentation.   

While genealogy is a topic that I have discussed before during a meeting this presentation will be completely different than the last one. The second presentation, which was actually the original impetus for the outreach, will be on the research, application process, and joining the Sons of the American Revolution. This has been a goal for several years and now it is finally coming to fruition. During this presentation I will not only talk about the discovery of this family line which was unfamiliar to the family during my youth but the process of researching and ultimately proving this lineage to the point where it will stand up to the scrutiny of an independent third party such as the Sons of the American Revolution. Of course, this is just the beginning and I will also touch upon the repetition of this process that is before me as I begin pulling together the documentation for thirty supplemental applications.

All that is left is to coordinate a day that works in my schedule. Hopefully, this will be a regular commitment as I continue writing and researching… there are certainly enough topics that I can speak on, maybe not intelligently but enough for a presentation. But, for now, I will enjoy the opportunity to visit my club, share my passions, and spend a couple of days with some great friends.

Funding Campaigns

Well, the time has come. While I have tried to avoid this for as long as possible, the time that it takes to maintain this blog and the resources that it requires (and the simple fact that I am running out of free ideas) that I start a fundraising campaign. I have also been asked about donating on a few occasions so this also provides the means for me to now accept those generous offers. Actually, because of the projects that I am working on, I am actually starting two fundraising campaigns through Patreon and Kickstarter respectively.

The Patreon campaign is ongoing and is designed to help with the recurring costs of maintaining this blog and raising the funds to take the blog to the next level. To this point, I have funded all research, travel, equipment, review products, and other expenses to maintain the daily stream of content. Obviously, this has come on a pretty tight budget and has hindered the growth of the blog which currently receives over 2,000 views per month. Patreon allows readers to donate monthly to the blog to support these efforts. Additional details about the campaign as well as incentives and ways the funds will be used can be found at https://www.patreon.com/SeanMT4D.

Understandably, not everyone is able to contribute on a monthly basis and many readers have specifically asked me about one topic in particular… genealogy. With those suggestions in mind I have started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $20,000 to really dig deep into my family tree. I admit that it is a lofty goal but it is also one that would allow me to expedite the process. The project is titled “Pruning The Family Tree: Questioning Facts and Fiction” and will result in a book most likely with the same title. Overall, the purpose of this project is not only to find those elusive answers but also to give shape and character to the lives of my ancestors and tell their stories, as eventful or uneventful as they may be, to the world. Additional details about this campaign, how the funds will be used (there is some overlap with the Patreon campaign), as well as the incentives for these onetime donations can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1751333165/pruning-the-family-tree-questioning-facts-and-fict.

If you have the means to contribute I would greatly appreciate your support with one or both of these campaigns. If your finances do not allow for such an expense I completely understand. I never have and never will maintain this blog solely for profit and to change that now would be disingenuous. I appreciate all the support that I received in maintaining this blog and I will continue to provide you with the free content that you have come to expect. Thank you all for your support.

Sunday Search: Restarting Our Tradition

Our newsletter will look nothing like this!

Years ago my wife and I would pull together a holiday newsletter recapping the previous year which was always well received by family and friends especially those that we hadn’t seen in a while. This was in lieu of a card and was usually mailed sometime between Hanukkah and Christmas each year. The last time that we pulled one of these together was in December of 2012… it has been some time since we took part in this tradition and we are determined this year to once again send out a family newsletter albeit a little later than in the past.

When we decided that we were going to restart this tradition the question that we had to answer was whether we would return to the format that we used before or would we take the opportunity to pack in three years of updates into a single, long, mailer. There certainly wasn’t a shortage of content from the previous twelve months and most people to whom we would be sending the newsletter read this blog on a regular basis. However, even given those two things we decided to go ahead and offer quick updates in a variety of categories encompassing the past three years but focusing primarily on this past year.

We had actually planned on getting this out last month but time has not been kind to us over the past several weeks which has left this project on the back burner. To be honest, this is primarily my fault as much of the content I will be pulling from and condensing from this blog. My wife has already created the template and written the sections that would simply be inappropriate for me to write so now the onus is completely on me. Thankfully, we have both been able to update our address books so that part is taken care of as well.

I know that many of you are looking at this as yet another project on the inexhaustible list of items but this is an important part of our own tradition and what we want to have marking each year as a family. Plus, for me it is the summary that everyone seems to ask for understandably not wanting to sift through the hundreds of posts from the previous year. This is our opportunity to look back on, reflect, and report to those we care about what life has been like for us the previous year. And, down the road, in addition to being a simple addition to the family history files, it will be a great reminder for us all of the things that we both enjoyed and survived in 2015.

Binding The Blog(s)

A couple of weeks ago I received an interesting email through my blog account (see the “Contact Me” tab on the right for my email address). As I read through the contents I did so with some trepidation as to the validity of what was being offered. I have gotten countless emails before making similar claims but there was always a catch when I would ask for a few more details. This time was different.

As it turns out, there is a small publishing company in Germany that specializes in publishing books by Israeli and Diaspora writers about Jewish life. They had come across my old blog, From Goy To Oleh, and had also read a few posts on this current blog as well. I guess they liked what they read because I was being offered a publishing deal. It is great to have this feeling again since it has been over a decade since my last book was published (the poetry publisher has since ceased operation) and I have been wanting to pursue this endeavor once again in the coming year (this seems to be a goal made annually).

Now I once again have the opportunity to pursue another one of my passions which has been dormant for so many years. And while there are other volumes that I hope to put into print through other publishers over the next few years, this is definitely a great start and the perfect way to get back into the world that I have been absent from lately. This book will comprise of my various posts about our Israel journey, our return, and other aspects of Jewish life that I have written about on occasion. It will be interesting going through all of these posts again and compiling them into a single volume.

This is the first book in my return to publishing. As I pull these posts together I will also be revisiting my master’s thesis, my full length collection of Holocaust poetry, and seeing who might be interested in turning this work into a bound collection. After that I will see if I have produced enough content to publish some family history… I am not sure that there is enough written at the moment but, maybe, by the time this first project reaches completion there may be sufficient content. Beyond these projects, it would be nice to finally flesh out some of the outlines for novels that I have stored on my computer as well as the children’s book that is still in need of illustrations.

But, for now, it is one step at a time. While I have no idea where I am going to find the hours to get this done while working and continuing my other writing projects, I am certain that I can get this done. In the meantime, I would be happy to start a list of those of you that may be interested in purchasing the book when it does come out. Obviously, I am not taking any money at this point but this would allow me to update you as to when it will be published as well as the final price. On all accounts, I will definitely keep you all posted.

We Are Getting There!

Well, we are almost there anyway. Tomorrow’s post will be the 900^th on this blog but, given the fact that it will fall on Veterans Day, today we will take a moment to look back on the journey and take stock of all that has happened since I started this growing collection of research, reflections, observations, and gripes. The only issue is that many of the posts, the past two and a half years, are all blurring together. There have been so many ups and downs, so many places and events, too many words to remember many of the specifics that I have covered over the days, weeks, months, and years.

I guess it would be best to look at what this blog has become. What was started as something to simply keep my mind occupied and my fingers moving, this site is now a place where I am able to collect my thoughts, decompress, gain perspective, and sometimes vent about what happened during the day or during the past week. Honestly, when I put the first word to paper I didn’t think much of the longevity of the blog (definitely not thinking it would last this long especially given the daily regularity).

Now I look at the time when I sit down to write, whether at the office or at home, as a way of relaxing regardless of the topic on which I may be focusing. Even the most animated posts have become something that has calmed me as I am forced to focus and put things in some semblance of an order. And, thankfully, since that first introduction in 2013, I have taken the time to set some stricter guidelines and carve out particular days of the week to cover certain topics. Usually today would be about my son but sometimes it is also good to break away from the rigidity.  

Now that I have gotten to this point I am even more determined to keep pushing each and every day. After all, reaching quadruple digits would be something rather astounding to me. And I know that many of you will be coming along for this push to 1000 as the monthly views show me that many of you are interested in one way or another for one reason or another. But for these next 100 I would prefer not having the spotlight to myself. I would like to read your words and share your stories on this blog (you will receive credit of course). Thank you all for the support during the FIRST 900… now let’s work together, share the spotlight, and knock out these next 100 together. Who knows, maybe I will have to do something special for number 1000.

Alumni Update

I received a few emails a couple of months ago from the Endicott Alumni Association asking for updates from my graduation class. It has been interesting reading the scattered responses and ever since the request came in I have been planning on sending an update. The problem has been that over the past decade there have been so many changes (heck, over the past year) that it is difficult to know where to start. Well, here is my attempt at providing a summary of what life has been like since I received my degree from Endicott College ten years ago…

It is hard to believe how quickly ten years can simply evaporate and I am sure that there are very few of you that were even close when you thought about where you would be as Dr. Wylie handed you your degree. I sure didn’t expect to be where I am today working as a PR Account Executive outside of Philadelphia focusing on the tech industry. I guess you never know where you will end up (especially for those of us who were English majors).

So, how did I get here? With my degree in hand I returned home to the Philadelphia suburbs, published some work in a few literary journals, magazines, anthologies, and pulled everything together in a short collection of poetry which was released by Pudding House Publications. Local readings followed including one at a local Barnes & Noble where I met my wife. After a year away from academia, I couldn’t help myself and soon enrolled in the MFA program at Rosemont College. While studying at Rosemont I was also pursuing a greater spiritual endeavor which led me to my conversion to Judaism a month before receiving my graduate degree.

Here is where things really started getting hectic. That same summer I was offered a Business Writer position at a PR firm in midtown Manhattan. By the fall of 2008 I was living in Brooklyn riding the F train to work every morning. By the spring I found myself in a difficult position as my Fibromyalgia was getting the better of me forcing me to take some time off before my wedding in June. My wife and I were married in Philadelphia in June of 2009 and spent over a week in Jerusalem with a couple of days in London tacked on at the end. It was a life changing trip that followed a life changing event.

Now living in Metuchen, New Jersey, and with my Fibromyalgia in mysterious remission, that fall I was faced with the reality of a diabetes diagnosis. It was a moment that made us assess what we really wanted to do with our lives. The following summer, after visiting Endicott and showing my wife the beauty of the campus, my wife and I started on another adventure that would take us back to the Middle East. A year later, in July 2011, my wife and I made Aliyah. However, some things aren’t meant to be and we soon after found ourselves returning back to the United State (although we will always be Israelis). This would later prove to be a 

2012 was a difficult year having moved back to the Philadelphia area, Bala Cynwyd to be exact, to be close to family and, by doing so, putting our careers on hold. It was tough working overnight shifts, living paycheck to paycheck, and watching our debt slowly climb but we made it through that tough time and we both found ourselves back on track in the professions we are truly passionate about by the fall of 2013. This tough time also afforded us the opportunity, the freedom if you will, to explore much of Pennsylvania as well as get involved in a few local community organizations. It was during this time when I became both a Rotarian (former President Elect) and a Mason (currently serving my second year as Secretary). And given the monotony of the hourly position I held, I was also able to start a daily blog, Time To Keep It Simple, to which I continue posting on a daily basis. Finally, it gave us the time to explore our roots as we worked to pull together the dispersed details of our family trees and finding out where we come from and exploring the details of each generation. Again, this is something that we still enjoy doing when we have the time.

There are a lot of other things that have happened in the 10 years since I walked through the door of Trexler Hall one final time but I have already written more than you were probably expecting to read (if you even made it this far). So I will end things rather simply. Today, my wife and I are doing our best to enjoy every minute that we have with our eight month old son. We live a bit further from the city than our previous places of residence, but we are still close enough to see our families on a regular basis. We are busy, sometimes too much so, but we are happy. It has been a busy decade but I am sure it will pale in comparison to the decade that is unfolding before us.

Sunday Search: Keeping In Touch

It's never too early to start coloring in the family tree!

After the reunion in July, I was determined to improve my communication with family members both nearby and far away. After all, there is only so much that I can do with regard to genealogy and it is always best to be in communication with numerous family members trying to fill in the different pieces rather than all of use trying to find all of the answers on our own. Additionally, we all have access to different documents, photos, and stories that we should be sharing with one another. That might have been the biggest takeaway from the weekend, there is so much that we all possess and it would be nice for us all to have access to those pieces of the picture and leaves of the tree.

While in the past this would have been a more exaggerated process full of letters and a lot of postage. That isn’t the reality in which we live today. While there are some that still require the letters, phone calls, and face to face meetings, most can be accomplished through email and social media (I will write about genealogy specific online tools in a future post). Thankfully, there has already been a group formed on Facebook to help facilitate those communications and I have been able to connect with those who were in attendance as well as those who were unable to make it over the past couple of months.

Sometimes it is also these simple things that get other family members interest in family history. I have been able to connect with many family members, some of whom to which I have not previously spoken, based on the simple fact that they want to learn more about the family. In other instances, different stories have been shared… some I have heard before while others are completely new to me. I doubt that the correspondences would have come as easily through any other means other than Facebook or email.

Of course, there are a lot more stories that have yet to be told and information that hasn’t as of yet been shared but the lines of communication are open and I am looking forward to collecting and sharing these new tidbits with the rest of the family. Additionally, there is an open invitation to family members (and other with stories they would like to share) to write a post to be included on this blog (the author will receive full credit). So, the reunion turned out to last much longer than the two days in Virginia, and I expect it to continue until we are able to get together again five years from now… we should have a much more colorful and complete tree by then.

50K And 67

There have been many milestones since I started this blog. Many of them I had preconceived notions from the very beginning as to when they would occur. I was completely wrong regarding this latest one as I originally thought that it would happen sometime during the fourth year of writing. This was later revised to a timeline slightly more optimistic than reality but it really was slight. Basically it breaks down to the originally projection of about one thousand views per month later revised to over two thousand.

Well, just over two years since the first words were posted, I hit the 50,000 views mark. While a big number (at least for me) when you first look at it, it is even bigger when you think about it. This blog has been viewed 50,000 times which breaks down to roughly 67 views per day. Obviously some posts have been more popular than others and some days have been more active than the rest. That is the ebb and flow of writing in general and blogging in particular.

Think about that for a second. On average, there were 67 clicks specifically with the intention of reading the content that I have posted. Given the lack of interesting content that has been produced overall, this just goes to show that really anyone can do this. With that said, I appreciate each person and each click that has been made since this blog was launched. It was never my intent to gain a large readership but it is certainly nice to see people enjoying what I am writing (or getting pissed off by it).

The sheer volume is still completely foreign to me. I have written for a variety of companies and executives over the years where these numbers are pretty insignificant but having something with my name on it being read to such an extent is kind of astounding. Of course, this is coming from someone who started off in the poetry market where exposure and popularity are tremendously small in comparison to other genres. Having this many people read my work now would have been unthinkable in those days a decade ago.

The trick now is trying to find the balance between past and present, quality and quantity, honest and opinion, originality and reporting. It is a completely different way of writing these days and something that I am still getting used to. I treat this as a journal but have to maintain some kind of coherence in the posts. It is a balance of writing and of time. It is work and play.

So, thank you again for all your support but don’t just sit back and read. I encourage you to do the same, write about what you want to record about your life. Put yourself out there. Enjoy the process and the sharing of ideas. And, of course, let me know if there is anything that you would like me to write about and I will do my best to accommodate.

Falling Behind for Good Reason

My blog schedule sometimes has the same effect on people.

As it relates to this blog and the schedule that I keep trying to make sure everything is up to date it has been an interesting year to say the least. While I maintain this space as a place for daily posts and schedule them accordingly, there have been instances when I have fallen behind and for good reason. But, in the end, I always make up for the lost time and posts in order to return continuity to the project.

In addition to a routine that has taken a radical left turn in the last few months, there have been a couple of events that have caused my disappearance from this blog. The first significant one was when my son was born. Days in the hospital, lack of sleep, and a complete shift in focus completely pulled me away from writing these posts and from just about anything else in the world that didn’t involve our son. It was well over a week before I was able to get things back on track.

The other large gap that I can recall was just over a week ago when I was hit by a sudden and nasty case of food poisoning. I try to get ahead and write a few things here and there that I can archive for a future date but that has not been happening as frequently as I would like and they are used too often due to a lack of available time and an ever changing schedule. Only now am I able to finally catch up and get things on track again. I guess we will just have to see how long this one lasts.

I am till in the process of finding a few guest bloggers on a variety of topics in order to alleviate a little of the scheduling demands but thus far it has been difficult to find people to make the commitment. In the meantime, I will just keep writing. Some of the post will be a bit of a ramble like this one while others will be a little more opinionated, interesting, and/or research based. As many of you have found out, you really don’t know what to expect on most days and to be honest there are a lot of days when I have no idea what is going to be posted either.

So, I guess if you want to be picky, this hasn’t really been a daily blog. It has been a nearly daily blog but there has been no hiding that fact as anyone who follows my posts has noticed that from time to time there are some days that go by without a new entry and, all of the sudden, I am caught up a few days later. Heck, if you are reading this post you will notice that it didn’t quite make it up in time for the day that it was scheduled.

Can You Smell The Hamentashen?

I just realized earlier today as I was thinking about this post that I haven’t written about Purim for a few years. The last time I wrote about this joyous Jewish holiday was at a completely different point in my life as my wife and I were in the midst of the Aliyah process. Obviously there were different things on my mind and events surrounding our life but much of the post remains relevant even with things having changed so drastically over the years.

In fact, it is rather poignant given the speech that we heard yesterday and what is happening in the region as I write these words. So instead of trying to write the same thing over again, I am simply going to include most of that blog content below. After all, we still need to make some noise!

The joyous, and sometimes raucous, celebration is a community act. No one acts alone. Everyone works together and supports each other, to turn the voices of many into one to make one collective noise.

However, beyond these community gatherings of support and joy, the voice of the Jewish people is shattered. I am not talking about the differences between the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, etc. communities but of a more fundamental and deeper chasm… supporting Israel.

Purim is a time when we should recognize what we can do as a people. We can’t just sit around and stuff ourselves with Hamentashen, we must rally to support our homeland, we must speak with one voice, we must stomp our feel and blot out the accusations being made against our home. Whether it is by writing, by praying, by making Aliyah, make your voice heard!

We all need to regularly show our admiration for those who live in the land that G-d has granted to us, support for those in the IDF who protect us and defend our right to exist as a people and our right to a homeland, and respect for the holy men who pray for us all and carry on the traditions that many take for granted.

We live many different kinds of lives but we are one people with one home. We all want peace and we will all fight for peace because no one should live in a home being torn apart by conflict or partitions. We must ensure that we will not be cast out into the Diaspora again to be gripped with the longing to return and the inability to do so. We need to ensure that we and all our future generations have a place to call home! We need to make some noise!

Where Did February Go?

I knew heading into the month that this was going to be a bit of a challenge both at work and at home. The shortened calendar provides a bit of a crunch with regard to billing and just making sure everything is accomplished within the confines of the calendar. Two days may not seem like a lot but that is about 2 hours of billable time per person that are lost. Thankfully, that all seemed to work out and I was still able to put in my usual 200 hours. Of course this also shortened my lodge timeline a bit and I am still trying to make up for time lost.

However, work and lodge are far down the list of things that colored the calendar. My wife and I began the month as a family of two and now we find ourselves bringing the last day to a close with a son nearly two weeks old. It was a month that also saw a tremendous loss to our family… thankfully it is a short month and the page on the calendar can be quickly turned. Two days makes a hug difference in this regard.

The month began interestingly enough with all the football fanatics going into warm weather hibernation, Phil declaring that we were screwed for at least six more weeks, and Brian Williams announcing that he was not a highlander and has not shaped the course of history since the big bang. That same week I witnessed quite the interesting lodge meeting followed by the raising of another brother the following week. It was a unique experience going from seeing boys transformed into men through scouting and a man transformed into a mason a few days after.

Things were also busy at the office as we waited for Rip Torn to tell us what was going to happen next. This compounded the whole billing situation mentioned above. Things were just beginning to calm a little when my wife and I reached the fateful weekend that brought us to Bryn Mawr Hospital two days in a row. Of course, since the arrival of our son my perspective has changed just a wee bit. All the chaos from the first half of February just seemed to go away, the subsequent scramble to catch up doesn’t seem to bother me like it used to, and the rest of the days in the month just evaporated leaving only the memories behind. I know it happened but at this point I really don’t know what happened to February.

What Does This Milestone Mean To Me?

When I started this blog my goal was to force myself to write everyday as writing had been absent from my daily life for too long after being so prominent for years. While the goal was daily I honestly didn’t have much confidence that I would be able to keep up that page especially given the fact that I had set certain parameters for each post. However, unlike in the past, I am glad that I didn’t restrict myself to a specific topic or group of topics even though I knew from the beginning what subjects would play a prominent role.

That was 500 days and 500 posts ago and not much has changed in this blog. Frankly, I am amazed that I have been able to keep up the pace and, for the most part, find different things to write about. It is with that I mind that I have become more aware of the things and situations around me, I have paid closer attention to things in my life that would have in the past just been another day, and on a few occasions I have forced myself to do other things, go other places, and think about different subject so that I might have something interesting to write about.

While not everything has made it onto the blog both by choice and forgetfulness, these 500 posts have been a great way to record and communicate all that is happening in a very simple life. This brings me back to a question that was recently posed to me in a LinkedIn genealogy discussion. I had posted one of the many genealogy related posts to a group and the response from one member of the group, after the obligatory thanks for sharing this story, was something along the lines of “it is great that you are learning about your family history, putting the pieces together, and writing about them but what are you going to pass down? What will your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc. know about you and your life?”

With everything that has happened since I wrote the first word of the first post, this comment solidified why I keep writing. While these posts serve as a means of winding down and for me to remember all that I have done, they are also something to pass down. After all, it is one thing for future generations to know that you existed, it is something much more to know who you were, what you did, what you believed, and what you stood for. So I guess you could say that these 500 posts and all that follow are merely a means to add color, shape, and general character to my leaf on the tree.

Considering A Few Changes

I have been thinking about making a few changes to the blog over the next month or two. The main problem is finding the time to roll those things out so that they might be sustainable. Additionally, there are certain instances where I have to educate myself as to what the heck I am doing and how certain things can be done.

The first change that I am slowly starting to line up is the presence of guest bloggers. In addition to providing a different perspective and expertise (both of which are lacking to this point) it will also, in theory, free up some of my time so that I can pursue some of the logistical aspects of other ideas and put greater thought into the posts that I would like to focus on. While I am not going to take anything and everything that is submitted, I welcome submissions for consideration.

Something else that I am considering is starting a Patreon campaign to, potentially, cover some of the costs of the existing themes (i.e. travel, research time, admission fees, etc.) but also grant me the flexibility to pursue some other ideas (product reviews, range days, videos, etc.). You may not realize it, but this endeavor is a costly one at times. While I don’t expect to ever make anything blogging, it would be nice to break even now and again.

For those unfamiliar with the site, Patreon is a way for people (patrons) to support the blog on an ongoing basis based on the amount of content that is posted. Basically, you can make the commitment to give one dollar per post (you can also set monthly limits such as ten or twenty dollars). Essentially, I would only earn support by maintaining production.

Patreon would also allow me to provide more content (exclusive to partons) which would largely consist of additional photographs from trips, maybe a few videos, live chats, and additional content from other projects I am working on. This seems to be the easiest way for me to leverage the excess of content that never makes it onto the blog. Of course, I would also try to include a few giveaways now and again to make things a little more interesting. So, with all that information, do you think that this is something that is worth pursuing? Would that be enough to make you interested in becoming a patron?  

Lastly, and I have to figure out the logistics of this one, I am thinking about implementing permanent ads. While AdSense provides such promotions I actually have limited control over what is posted. I would much rather invest the time supporting companies and organizations that I agree with. I consider this the no surprises ad approach… you know what you are going to see every time you go onto my blog. Of course this also brings about the challenge of transferring the content to an actual URL without the blogspot portion of the address (with redirect from the old URL as well). Definitely something that can be done (and rather easily by those who know what they are doing) but it is a task that I am ill equipped to handle. I would greatly appreciate someone willing to donate their time to this task!

So, that is the list of things that I am considering at this moment. However, I would like your feedback as to what you think of those potential changes to the blog. Is it too much? Am I missing anything? Let me know your thoughts. After all, you are the ones visiting and reading these daily posts.

From Genealogy To Freemasonry To Religion: A LinkedIn Group Conversation

Well, I should have expected it but I posted a discussion on LinkedIn with the hope that people would keep to the topic of the group and the intention of the post. Basically, I had taken a post from a few days ago regarding the tour that I gave to a perspective candidate on Tuesday night and how we shared a commonality in our journey to Freemasonry. Our similar stories revolved around the genealogy that we had done on our respective families. With that in mind, I thought that those in the various genealogy groups that I am in would appreciate this coincidence. I also wanted the post to serve as an introduction to masonic records as a valuable genealogical tool.

Thankfully, there were a few people, masons and non-masons alike, which read this post and contributed to the discussion in the way that it was intended. However, there were others that proved to me that the anti-masonic movement is still alive and well (and now on LinkedIn). My favorite fallacy was posted by a supposed former Brother who wrote the following:

Freemasons Hall in London is very helpful with enquiries about masonic ancestors. It is indeed a fascinating subject.

However, having myself been Master of four lodges including one in the Antient and Accepted Rite, I concluded that Freemasonry is in fact a major perpetrator of heretical ideas, notably indifferentism, pelagianism and relativism or modernism. These heresies, pushed to their logical conclusion, deny God, and this is what Freemasonry, despite apparent assertions in its ritual to the contrary, also does.

Further down in the discussion I found the following comment:

I suggest that all should read "deadly deception" and find out the true background of masonry - i havebhad the opportunity to denounce all 33 rd degrees and curses over me ( unknowingly ) by two grandfathers - an uncle and my father .... I agree this forum is for Genealogy NOT masonry!

Please do not write me back - i have 14 books on masonry and breaking free from it! I have studied for years as a born again spirit filled Christian.

So, if I said that I have 15 books on Christianity and have proven all aspects of the New Testament to be false, does that make me an expert? According to this comment it does. But, per her request, I am not writing her back (this post doesn’t count).

This largely religious argument is based on a very simple egotistical view, primarily promoted by the Roman Catholic Church, which is that one cannot see other religions or views of G-d as valid. To support such a view is the same as declaring that there is no G-d and that man is the true center of the spiritual universe. Well, that is there argument and there argument is flat out wrong.

While we accept men of all faiths, we see religion as an individual relationship with G-d based on a man’s proclaimed faith. We do not promote one faith over another and we do not hold one faith above another when considering a candidate. In fact, we do not discuss religion at all during lodge. The ‘faith’ that binds us together, and is a requirement in order for a man to become a Mason, is that we all believe in G-d. The comments such as the ones mentioned above make me wonder how secure those individuals are in their own faith especially those who have no understanding whatsoever of Freemasonry beyond the propaganda.

We are a world full of billions of individuals. While many of our beliefs and associations align and religion (and religious beliefs) are held very close by many of us, we are all still very different. As someone who spent time in my life choosing my faith, I hold those beliefs close to me. However, that journey has also given me substantial insight into the individual process of belief and the varying views that people and religions as a whole hold. If anything, Freemasonry has strengthened my faith in my chosen G-d.