A Conditional Invitation

After a long absence, I return to this space with a rather different sense of purpose, and an entirely new perspective. 

The novelty of the perspective owes much to a decision taken in May - some six weeks after my 67th birthday - to leave my native Virginia and relocate to the Pacific Northwest.  The decision came about almost without time for reflection. 

I had been, for six years, renting the downstairs of a somewhat shabby Victorian home near downtown Staunton, Virginia.  My landlady had decided to sell, and had she offered me the house for 10% off her intended asking price.  I considered the offer for about a week, ultimately deciding I didn't want to undertake a long renovation process - and that, at any rate, there was nothing in particular tying me to Staunton.  Great town, and some good friends, but I'd never really become a part of things there.

Besides, I had work to do - work I'd been too long postponing.  A novel.

We all have one.  And mine has been "in the works" since I was 29.

At any rate, I called my investment advisors and my CPA, and they were unanimous that I should invest in a house.  So, in a matter of a few weeks, I had flown to my favorite Oregon beach town, surveyed the houses available in my price range, and made a successful offer. 

Thus, the new perspective.  I'm sitting at the west-facing window of my living room, where I can lift my eyes to admire one of those enormous rocks which make the Oregon coast so attractive.  Today, it's lit up by the westering sun.  In a few weeks, we'll move into the six-month rainy season which keeps Oregon from becoming another Southern California.

As for the purpose, I've already hinted at that.  The novel.  Which, being a political novel - set in the present day - requires me to do a good deal of thinking about where we are, as a nation and as a planet.  And considering ways in which we might do things better.

For I mean to write an optimistic novel.  Realistic, but hopeful.

And I propose to use this blog as a means of gathering thoughtful friends - old friends and new - to kick around ideas I might end up using in the novel.  A sort of brains trust, as it were.

If that sort of thing interests you - or if you know someone who might be interested - I welcome participation. 

But please understand, I don't invite a rehashing of tired arguments from the perspective of one of the two major parties.   Nor do I welcome ideology in any form.

I realized today, while doing household chores, that I have never been comfortable with ideology.  Or rather - since I have long known that - I realized why I have never been comfortable with it.

The reason is simple:  All ideologies are, ultimately, wrong.  By their nature, they require the true believer to reject certain perspectives - and a good deal of information - which doesn't fit in with his or her chosen belief system.

You might say that all ideologies - and here, I include doctrinaire religious faiths - are incredibly arrogant.  A mere mortal decides to accept a certain set of beliefs as being incontestably true.  As if any of us had the wisdom to make such a determination.

And of course, most true believers insist that the truths they proclaim are not theirs - that they are following the teachings or revelations of some great teacher - or even of some god.  But the fact remains, the true believer has decided, for himself, that the great teacher or the divine being is, of all possible teachers or deities, the one worthy of being followed. 

And what, I ask, could be more arrogant than that?

So, in issuing my invitation, I do so with this caveat.  I am not interested in ideology or dogma of any kind.  I accept that their is much to learn from every field of human knowledge - and almost every faith - but I insist on retaining the right to test each proposed truth against my own experience and the experiences of all humankind, throughout history.  And against alternative perspectives.  And against Reason.

And that, for today, is about it.  I hope to find a few friends who will help me sort out the ideas I will need for my novel.  Those who can help will have my gratitude.

But I plan on keeping the royalties.  If there are any.