PICTURE

Before we go much further in this blog-writing thing, I wanted to briefly share a little about me.  It will make stomaching the tougher things I have to say in later posts easier since you’ll be able to say, “Bless his heart; he doesn’t know any better.”

As my bio says, I was born in Savannah, Georgia.  What it doesn’t say is that I was born to an overall terrific Christian family who, because of some dangers reported in public schools at the time, sent me to a private Christian school.  I stayed in that private school from kindergarten through my graduation.  Some of my experiences were good, and I met some powerful Christians that were great examples to me.  Others were not, and I had teachers who admitted to the class that they were not even believing Christians.  Both types of people taught me a lot about Christian education—the negative and the positive aspects.

When I went into teaching English, I thought I’d be doing that for the rest of my life.  That’s why I almost immediately began and completed my Master’s degree in English education.  But God had a way of shaking things up when He shut down the school in which I was working.  All of a sudden, I saw Christian parents in a different way.  I experienced the gossip.  I experienced the lashing of the tongues of Christians in the parking lot.  I watched mothers and fathers destroy the lives of administrators with innuendo.   I also discovered the hypocrisy and agenda-setting which plagues many Christian school boards.  It was a faith shaking experience that made me leave Christian education for two years and teach in a secular private boarding school.  The experiences in working with the boys in the boarding setting convinced me to get a second Master’s degree in Professional Counseling and begin pursuing the hard, long road to state licensure when I was at first thinking of getting my Ph.D. in Creative Writing.

Why do I tell you this?  As I speak to you in future, (hopefully) weekly posts, I want you to know my angle.  Yes, I’m a writer.  I’ve had poetry and short fiction published in a variety of venues and journals, and I continue to produce.  Yes, I’m a teacher.  Currently, I teach AP Psychology and AP Literature and Composition, the two courses I ADORE.  Yes, I’m a principal.  Officially, I’m the Principal of Faculty and Counseling, meaning that I often teach teachers, and supervise a counseling program.  Yes, I’m a therapist.  I’ve worked in private practice for over a decade with teenagers suffering from anxiety and mood disorders.  I’m a mutt of occupations.  In short, I’m a writeapalist.  You have to know my background and the way I think or you simply won’t get why I harp on the things on which I harp. In fact, I harp on things so much I often pop the strings.

Philosophically, I believe that it’s time for us to let our kids learn responsibility and sometimes fail, our fathers lead, and our mothers nurture.  When we try to keep any of those family members from completing their tasks, none of them thrive.  I believe that the Christian worldview is the only one that makes sense in any rational terms, and I believe only a Christian can have full total mental health although many choose not to.  And I try to remind myself that we should all take ourselves a lot less seriously than we do.  BUT I don’t expect anyone else to agree with me on any of these points in order to get along with me.  I love a good argument.

There are many of other things I can share with you—like how I’m an introvert and basically melancholy/choleric—but that’s all you get for now.  Everything that is to come will make more sense.