Passing-Thought

Genealogy and Blogging: a raison d'être

I spent Thanksgiving with my two great aunts, whom I haven't seen since I was a little boy. They are twin sisters to my grandfather Pyle who died before I was born. I asked them to tell me more about my family history from my father's side of the family. And I received the beginnings of a family tree and some stories to hang on that tree as Christmas ornaments.

My father was divorced when I was seven years old, and my mother sought to establish our family upon healthier grounds and to form new memories. Now that I'm older and hoping to start my own family, I feel an instinctual need to reach back into my past, to be rooted genealogically speaking, to recover and rehearse memories of my childhood, and stories received from my ancestors. Forming my own family means much more than just passing on my genes, it means sharing my personal identity, which has a historical family context, a lineage. I have no desire to pass on my family history as a means to justify the philosophy that "blood is thicker than water". That is idolatry and perversion of truth. But to trace God's providential hand, to discover when and in what manner our proximate family lived in Egypt so that we can better appreciate the benefits of our Exodus in Christ and our future hope to enter The Promised Land.

In many ways, the very existence of my blog "Passing-Thought" is connected to this basic (paternal) desire to "pass on" with the existential conviction that all present human thought passes away, as its time confronts eternity. Thus, the title captures "what blogging means to me." "Passing-Thought" is in the singular rather than plural. The blog is thematically holistic in conception, and has its conviction of sticking to its own meaning and reason for existence. It has an organizing principle, even if that principle be the flux process bearing my surname, rather than a pre-determined cloned product. It is a play on words carrying four basic senses:

"Passing-Thought"
1) Each entry represents a time-bound action, in full fleeting glory. A thought delivered from the womb of my mind unto the cradle of the webpage, carrying its own birth-certificate. A blog is chronology of such thought beggetings, each carrying within their cell-structure my psychogenetic DNA.
2) The fixation of such thoughts into public writing is at the same time a means to reach out beyond their time of deliverance, beyond the cradle of the entry, into the hands of those who want to share and remember the experience, perhaps to see something in its face that reminds them of their own time-boundness, origins, age, and inevitability. So, not just a passing of thought from mind to page, but from paged-thought to another's thought.
3) The allowance of blog comments is a means to receive feedback, as from a babysitter, to learn about their time spent with my children, whether they were ill-behaved or give reason to be proud. And to be willing to return the babysitting favor. Thus, in this sense "Passing-Thought" represents an exchange of ideas, an interpersonal give and take.
4) "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." In the ultimate sense, "Passing-Thought" is a confession that all human thought must bow to eternity before the thrice Holy God, when he comes to judge the world in glory. Every thought expressed must seek to pass away, self-sacrificially, otherwise there is no hope to pass on. Not even through their children or children's children. Every word must wear the the attitude "I am nothing, I know nothing" as its logo, in respect to the One in whom is all knowledge.

God said to Adam, "Cultivate and keep the garden."
Blogging as a "genealogical" exercise, in its highest (unselfish) form, is an act of love towards others. In the first sense, it tries to accept that God has given my thoughts, not just for my own use, but in practical service to others, for His glory. It forces me to speak when my perfectionistic tendency is to not to speak until my thought is "perfect". But my thoughts are never perfect, they are always under construction, subject to God's maturing sanctifying work of grace. My task is to plant and water, in the sound hope that God gives growth.

Consequently, the bearing forth of thoughts as children, requires responsibility. I must accept my children as my own, and be willing to accept how they affect the lives of others (and their children); When they misbehave, apologize for not always raising them as I should, in the nurture and admonition of my own Father. When they do well, admit that whatever good I pass on, comes only from my Father.

God said, "It is not good for Adam to be alone."
Blogging as "genealogical" exercise, requires more than self. As stewards of God's creation in His image, man was designed to need female to accomplish his garden task, to bring all things into the fulness of the glory of God. Likewise, if no one listens, I write in vain. If no one responds, I think in vain.