Why Blog??

Blogging is a fairly new activity of mine, one that I shied away from previously for a variety of reasons. I thought: who wants to read what I have to say ? Who would care?

I’ve realized that blogging doesn’t mean you’re an expert on anything, but it does offer something of value for those who like to read and perhaps learn from others' experiences and observations. My blogging will only be interesting if you have an interest in my topics, like my writing or find my life experiences to be valuable.

If you choose to “visit” me here regularly, and I hope you do ….. You’ll find a "smorgasbord" of offerings from highlights of new Prodigal Carpenter creations to  “how to” suggestions and tutorials, woodworking product reviews and tips to philosophical musings.  Prodigals pick up a lot of information on their circuitous journeys. My hope is that you’ll find a treasure or two worth assimilating into your own.

At 58 years of age I figure that now I qualify to blog because I’ve accumulated enough information based on life experience to perhaps be useful. I’m also at that age where the years that qualify me will in the not too distant future  relegate me to the dreaded place of irrelevance.  

 My Dad died a little over three years ago at the age of 86. Thankfully I changed my life around about a decade ago and got to spend some valuable time with him before he passed. There are so many things I watched my Dad do that never really sunk in until he was gone. He loved to write, he loved to build things with his hands, he loved to troubleshoot problems and take a crack at fixing them, and he loved to plan before he would act.  I’ve adopted all of these traits, some unknowingly through the years; I only wish my Dad had shared more about “how” he became the way he was.  Thus the blog.

Aside from my father I have accumulated a wealth of information from others, many of them senior to myself; yet one of the things that breaks my heart nowadays is how our society casts off the elderly as though they’re nothing but an irrelevant burden.  

I’ve watched elderly loved one’s worlds narrow because of age and because they’re being treated as either old fashioned, out of touch, or just plain stupid. In turn, they shut down because they’re not stupid, but they’re also not going to waste their time sharing wisdom with those who discount them; instead they’re attitude becomes “let them figure it out.”  

We could learn a boatload from others. Young people could learn so much by sitting under the council of some of these elderly folks; God’s word tells us that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9), we just don’t believe it.

I can’t tell you how much heartache I could have saved myself (and others) had I only listened sooner, and because I can admit that fact my blogs are not an indictment of those who are like I was. They will be, I hope, an opportunity for those who stumble across them to gain a few nuggets of wisdom or stir a thought that might make a difference in their world.   

The Prodigal Carpenter