This Internet “book” happened because, shortly after I had written some mostly-light-hearted essays just for the fun of doing it several year ago, personal websites became available and the geek in me made it necessary for me to have a website of my own.  Because I had some essays already written, I immediately had enough material to start “publishing” my book of essays on my new website.  This book has grown considerably over the years since, so I hope there are still some people, both original readers and new arrivals, who can keep finding something new and interesting here.

During the roughly 12 years since that beginning, I’ve kept writing (too much of which is waiting for a final edit before appearing here) and now what follows wanders back and forth between frivolous and serious - and, although you will easily recognize the essays that I hope are just entertainment; you sometimes will have to decide for yourself what is serious and what is self-parody within a mostly-serious essay. 

My serious essays, I’m afraid, need a bit more explanation and it is kind of a long story:  Because my job before I retired required me to write explanatory instructions for the administration of labor contracts, I quickly learned there was a world of difference in difficulty between (1) understanding a provision well enough to instruct a manager on how to comply with the labor contract in the process of his getting a specific job done (which I did all the time) and (2) writing a definitive description of all possible implications each contract provision could have under all imaginable circumstances, that I had to attempt to do (fortunately) only after each new contract was signed, which was only once every two-to-four years.  So when I started writing essays, I already knew beyond any doubt that trying to adequately describe anything complicated in writing was a perfect way to test the depth of my own understanding of it. 

Because I enjoy the mental process of writing anyway - I decided to try to write some definitive essays about some of my personal beliefs (only some of which are included here.)  I’d been curious and interested for some time in how people arrive at their “important” beliefs and felt this writing exercise would test whether I really believed what I had always thought I believed.  And it did.  I discovered I really didn’t actively believe some of the things I had grown up thinking I believed.  I’d just not bothered to think much about those beliefs during an otherwise busy life and so didn’t really give much conscious attention to my beliefs - until I decided to test myself about them.

I was further influenced by my participation in - and eventual appointment as moderator of - a discussion group on this island that meets biweekly to conduct philosophical discussions about nearly anything that has philosophical implications.  (Their organizational website is also my creation and is at www.CafePhiloIbiza.org)

As a result of both experiences, I am now convinced many people go through life believing things about very serious matters that they’ve never thought enough about to genuinely know whether they really believe them.  (One essay here deals briefly with the phenomenon of inherited beliefs that most people never even consider examining or questioning.)  Although I’m certain untested beliefs are quite normal, I think this “subconsciously casual” support most of us provide for what we believe shows an absence of integrity and/or commitment at what should be the highest level of our consciousness.  So, in my serious essays, I often try to nudge readers into examining their beliefs more completely, carefully and honestly than most people normally do. 

And it isn’t just personal beliefs that could use some nudging; there are also some social norms that could use some constructive shaking up by people willing and able to do some fresh thinking about them.  So my most serious essays are often intentionally challenging and, depending on one’s own disposition and beliefs, can seem a bit aggressive.  So, if you are not prepared to deal with the possibility of having your established views challenged, you should stop reading here.

For many reasons this book will always be a work in progress.  I keep running at ideas headlong, although I know I can’t fix anything.  Human nature is, well, human nature.  Even so, I have given a few stubborn issues more than one attempt to beat them down.  

All of which means, if you have been waiting for me to finish this before you bother to take a serious look at it, please don’t wait any longer because I do not expect it to be finished until I’m dead.   And if you don’t read it until I’m dead, you’ll have missed the opportunity to give me your opinion.  (Maybe that’s not so bad.)  

As I’ve said somewhere before, personal websites are the perfect activity for us compulsive over-communicators, because potential readers can ignore them in the privacy of their own homes and no one needs to know - and, better still, websites don't clog up your email inbox.  (I’ve no doubt I could effectively defend my websites with nothing more than a comparison to the plethora of forwarded email attachments that have quickly risen to the status of Public Aggravation Number One.  My own Internet advice:  Delete without opening any email with a subject that includes the word “cute” or “amazing” or “funniest” - unless you are ALREADY bored out of your mind.)

Still, maybe the most practical of all reasons for my writing is it is really nice to be able to answer “Just working on my book, dear,” whenever Mary Beth stops at the door to my office to see what I am up to.  I probably would do something really drastic to avoid ever having to answer: “Just playing computer solitaire.”

Finally, I admit to harboring the hope that some of this stuff will make you smile and other stuff will inspire some of you to think more seriously about things to which you otherwise might not have given more than a passing thought - independent of whether you agree with anything I say.  So, I invite you to click the “comment” button at the bottom of any essay you happen to read and let me know your thoughts.  You can be sure I will respond.  (That wasn’t supposed to sound like a threat.)