Fourteen Years a Mormon, Five Years a Blogger

October 11, 2012    By: Matt W. @ 3:26 am   Category: Life

Fourteen years ago today I was baptized. It still is the single most important decision I have ever made in my life. For the past five years, I have posted about it each year. I post less frequently than I did five years ago. It seems that one of three things have happened, either the blogging genre has begun to cool as a popular medium, or I have begun to have less interesting things to say, or my kids have kicked me off the computer. Probably the third bit is an excuse for the reality of the second bit. In any case, thanks to everyone who has read here at New Cool Thang, who has taken time to comment, who has been patient with me as I thought through things, misspelled things, or generally butchered the standardized grammatical forms. I apologize if I have offended any, whether in comments, postings, or the lack of the same. Life is, if anything, busy.

After fourteen years I can still say I believe in Christ. I believe in the Book of Mormon and the power that comes from believing in its words. I know that the purpose and direction in my life comes from my faith and participation in the Church. I feel the inexplicable reality of God’s love for me. I acknowledge also the reality of priesthood authority having power from God, and feeling the benefits from that in my life and the lives of my daughters. I have no regrets regarding my choice to affiliate with this fine church. It brings me peace today and hope for tomorrow. The best is still yet to come.

If I don’t post much anymore, it’s not because I have lost faith or lost intellectual curiosity. If anything, I have lost the capacity to keep up with the intellectual giants who parade about me, whether due to lack of time, lack of desire, or lack of ability, I don’t know, but I do know that I miss the days gone by, when, like the nerd that I am, I would stay up too late to read one more comment, cross check one more philosophical point, or validate one more historical bit.

Whether this blog is dead or alive, I know not, “but as for myself, to me [it] doth not stink”

13 Comments

  1. I’ve always enjoyed your posts Matt. It’s been great to think through various ideas together. As for your reasons for infrequent posts, and the sweet nostalgia for the excitement of blogging in the past, you are definitely not alone.

    Comment by aquinas — October 11, 2012 @ 6:35 am

  2. I’ve enjoyed your writing, Matt. Thanks.

    Comment by wvs — October 11, 2012 @ 7:07 am

  3. Congratulations on both counts, Matt. Buy them all iPhones and you’ll get your computer back.

    Comment by Dave — October 11, 2012 @ 7:07 am

  4. Keep calm and blog on. (FWIW, I also find my blog ardor cooling.)

    Comment by Ben S — October 11, 2012 @ 7:13 am

  5. Congrats on 14 years! Thanks for sharing your story.

    Comment by jks — October 11, 2012 @ 7:58 am

  6. Cheers, man. I’ve enjoyed hanging out with you over the years.

    Comment by J. Stapley — October 11, 2012 @ 8:09 am

  7. either the blogging genre has begun to cool as a popular medium

    Perish the thought! :)

    Congratulations on your two anniversaries, Matt!

    Comment by Ziff — October 11, 2012 @ 1:20 pm

  8. Matt: Thanks for all of your contributions. Keep up the good work.

    Comment by Blake — October 11, 2012 @ 3:33 pm

  9. I do know that I miss the days gone by, when, like the nerd that I am, I would stay up too late to read one more comment, cross check one more philosophical point, or validate one more historical bit.

    Hear, hear!! I do miss the glory days of 300 comment threads where we all see how many different ways we can say the exact same thing over and over again. MMP’s, freewill and, of course, evolution!

    I don’t know if it means anything to you guys, but I’m now closer to your (old?) position(s) than I am to my stance in those threads… I don’t know if that counts as a victory for you or not. :p

    Comment by Jeff G — October 16, 2012 @ 11:59 pm

  10. Happy anniversary.

    Comment by Eric Nielson — October 17, 2012 @ 3:03 am

  11. Jeff G.- You may be closer to our old postions, but I think we are closer to yours as well! We are all meeting in the middle, it seems.

    Comment by Matt W. — October 17, 2012 @ 12:05 pm

  12. Hey Buddy,

    Don’t give it up. It’s good for the soul to get this stuff out there.

    Comment by LDS OCD BLOGGER — October 22, 2012 @ 1:37 pm

  13. Thank heavens you have been posting here, Matt. Kristen, Jacob, and I are mostly tapped out of Mormonism posts it seems. And our part-time contributors Blake and Kent aren’t writing posts these days either.

    Luckily Jeff is picking up the slack too lately. But I sure am glad you are keeping the Thang alive.

    Comment by Geoff J — October 24, 2012 @ 3:51 pm