“Passion is the act of people becoming suddenly, terribly, accidentally important. The only thing more unfair than passion’s arousal is its inevitable fading.” – Benson Bruno

So, I’m going to be winding things down here over the next couple of months, give or take a week or so. Kinda like retiring from retirement. There are a couple of reasons for this, but the main one is my health. The number of hours in any given day where I’ve got the energy to do shit has been dwindling for quite some time. Most of you who have been reading my writing, listening to my podcasts or watching my videos are aware of this, so I will not reiterate. Suffice to say, I’ve got about six or eight hours a day that can be categorized as ‘productive,’ and those are not ‘in a row.’ There are several naps involved.

With That Stated…

You know that old axiom about never saying on your death-bed that you’d wished you spent more time at the office? Well, no, I am not at death’s door, but my health is poor and declining. Thus, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time re-examining my priorities. Right now, between writing letters to legislators on church-state issues, the promotion of atheism-relevant news and information across several social networks, participating in a few forums, hosting or co-hosting three radio shows, writing news for a Google news service, keeping up with a blog, producing videos and trying to finish two books, not only are most of those six to eight hours per day are being used up, but the quality of what I’ve been putting out has suffered due to spreading myself way, way too thin.

Two things…

One, there comes a time when one should understand when it’s time to ‘pass the baton‘ (so to speak) to those who are younger, more in-touch with a post-modern world, better at the use of technology, more energetic, motivated and driven in their endeavors. There are plenty of them out there, and they are doing a remarkable job. Truth be told, I am tired most of the time and I find that my lack of the motivation and enthusiasm I once had are cues for me to stand down and let the next generation take the lead.

Two, there also comes a time when one needs to re-examine their priorities. I’ve got a short list of priorities, and at the top is spending time with my family. Particularly my wife of over two decades. While some of you might find this unusual, we immensely enjoy hanging out with each other and are best friends. While be both love being parents and grandparents, we are coming into a time that we’ve been looking forward to for a while. The empty nest. Three of my children are grown and gone. Two of my daughters married with families of their own, another daughter left the nest last year and is getting married in June, and my son is off to college this fall.

Between now and my 50th birthday at the beginning of May, I am going to be significantly winding things down on several fronts.

Writing:

This blog is going to be archived. I’ve said pretty much all I have to say, and I’ve already posted more re-writes than I’m comfortable with. It’s not ‘writers block,’ but you can only say the same things so many times before you become redundant to a fault. I’ll keep the blog up and add content here and there over the next couple months, but my final entry will be on May 2nd. I have not decided if I will archive it privately or just leave it up but close it to further commenting.
Writing other than this blog will continue but on a very, very limited basis. I am going to continue writing news stories for The God Discussion, but only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. All other freelance writing will cease, effective immediately.
Books. Well, I’ve got two books in the works. One is similar to the last one, is almost finished and should be out by the spring. The other is a novel. I am having difficulty with the novel, as fiction is not my genre and character development, plot lines and other aspects of this venue are driving me freaking insane. I have no idea when this work will be finished, but given where I am now in the process, it looks like it might be the end of the year.

Social Networking:

I’ve got four Facebook accounts. Two are commercial accounts, one in my personal name and one under the name of ‘United Atheist Front.’ Across these two alone are almost sixteen thousand ‘likes,’ and while I appreciate all of them, I am going to shut them both down on May 2nd, as well. Of the remaining two, I will keep one open as a public account and keep a limited number of friends, less than three hundred – and that might be pared down as well. The other one is a private account consisting of primarily family members and very close friends.
Twitter. I’ll be keeping my Twitter account. It’s convenient, and while there isn’t a mobile Facebook account that’s worth a shit, Twitter was designed for this medium and thus, always convenient. I haven’t decided what to do with my account, yet, though. There are over 43,000 followers on my account. I can tell you that, at the very least, I won’t be very active there after the beginning of May. I might consider taking it private. I’ll make that choice over the next couple months, as well.
Google+. I’ll probably drop this venue entirely or take my account private in order to maintain the video conferencing capabilities. Nothing personal, Google.
I am deactivating my Tumblr accounts, my Pinterest account, my LinkedIn account and the couple of other social networks I am on, effective this week.

Speaking engagements:

Traveling has become arduous and my ability to speak fluently and comprehensively is getting more and more difficult as my aphasia and cognitive impairment worsens. Plus, I have to travel with someone because of my disabilities, thus all the costs associated with travel are doubled, and traveling with a shitload of drugs, even legal ones, is a pain in the ass. Don’t even get me started about getting through airport security with mobility aids. I won’t be doing this any more.

Videos:

I’ve put up about two dozen videos over the last few months, and while they’ve gotten some pretty good attention for someone who is not known for making videos, they take a lot of time and given the deterioration of my physical appearance, this is not a venue in which I wish to continue. I’ll likely put up a few more videos as I continue to get email requests for chapter readings from my books, but the channel will archived as of May 2nd. I have not decided whether or not I will keep the channel up, so if you really like my videos, download or mirror them before May 2nd.

Internet Radio:

Internet radio is a wonderful invention, and I truly love doing it. It takes virtually no energy for me to sit behind my microphone and talk, ask questions and participate in the banter back and forth between me and the others on the two shows I co-host. Internet radio reminds me of a time in my life when I was much younger and there was no Internet, no Mp3 players and before the Walkman when you’d flip on the radio and listen to the DJ’s spinning records of your favorite songs and adding in their commentary and run-ups. Get off my lawn…

Seriously, though, don’t get me wrong, I love my MP3 player and the convenience of listening to what I want, when I want to listen to it, without commercials. But those were great memories from back in the 60′s and 70′s, and since my short-term memory is like Swiss Cheese, those from days gone by seem to stick out more.

The only problem with these shows is the time of day they air. So, here’s how these will play out:

ReapSowRadio. I’ve been co-hosting this show with Reap Paden on Tuesday nights going on four years now, and will continue to do so because I love spontaneous talk-radio. I might not be on every show, though. My wife works four days a week and three nights a week. Given the amount of hours in a week I am awake and have enough energy to participate in life, and her work schedule, there is not enough time for us to hang out, as it is. Thus, the Tuesday nights she is off work, I’ll be with her.
The God Discussion Show. Given one of the fields my wife works in, she is gone almost every Friday night, so I don’t see me leaving The God Discussion any time soon. It’s on very late, but I make up for it my taking more naps during the daytime hours. The God Discussion Show is not an atheist show, by the way. You should check it out.
VOR: Insights. This is a new project for me, and its continuation is going to depend primarily on how many people listen to it. It doesn’t take all that long to put together a thirty minute show. A few hours or so a week, and I enjoy doing it. However, it does take an investment in effort that includes not just the editing, but because it is current-event related and broadcast on a live, 24/7/365 Internet radio station, there are schedules and relevancy issues to contend with. I don’t do schedules well. I am notoriously unreliable where schedules are concerned, and getting this show out takes a considerable amount of effort, so if nobody is going to listen, there’s no point. I’ve spoken with the station owners, who are dear friends of mine, and we will give it some time to see if it catches on.

Forums and Drama:

Internet forums can be fun, lively and engaging places. I’ll still post on the couple that I already do, but sporadically. I’ve shut down and archived the forums I administrated years ago, as moderating them became something just below sliding down a bed of razor blades into a pool of alcohol on the list of things I want to spend my time on.

I have all but lost interest in Internet drama, as well. I just don’t give a fuck about it, anymore, nor do I give a fuck about the people who pretend to be skeptics. I’ve little more than total disgust toward them and nothing better to say at this point other than simply, ‘go fuck yourselves.‘ You know who and what you are.

Offline Activism:

Most of my activism, roughly 90% or better, has been offline and out of the digital spectacles of the Interwebz. I’ve written hundreds of letters over the past several years to everyone from local town halls all the way up to the Oval Office, and have some personally gratifying accomplishments and victories under my belt.

However, this is extremely time consuming, draining and emotionally taxing. I’ve decided to cease and desist from all forms of local activism, including letter-writing campaigns, attempting to organize protests, addressing church-state violations in local municipalities, effective immediately.

There You Go…

So, my friends, fans, followers and supporters, this is how it is going to be. It’s been a fun and wild ride, but I am weary of it. As I wind things down over the next couple of months and gracefully fade into history, take note of those who I point out as people and organizations I emphatically support. Turn the time and attention you’ve given to me, positively toward them, if you are so inclined. They deserve of it.

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