Thursday, August 7, 2008

New Name for Blog?

Well, my conference is finished. My presentation went well yesterday, with several in the room coming to see me afterwards, and a few stopping me in the exhibit hall even later. Heading home tomorrow, back to the real world. Or maybe this is the real world for me, the world of scholarly engineering with a Christian worldview as a foundation, not the world or authorship and novels, non-fiction, etc.

I'm thinking about changing the name of this blog. When I first created it last December, Todd Blog was just a place holder as I thought about what to name it. I've taken my time, and thought about it much. I'm thinking about re-naming it "An Arrow Through the Air", after the passage in the John Wesley letter I blogged about in April 2008, over several posts. I love what Wesley said:

I am afraid of nothing more than of growing old too soon, of having my body worn out before my soul is past childhood. Would it not be terrible to have the wheels of life stand still, when we had scarce started for the goal; before the work of the day was half done, to have the night come, wherein no one can work? I shiver at the thought of losing my strength before I have found [it]; to have my senses fail ere I have a stock of rational pleasures, my blood cold ere my heart is warmed with virtue! Strange, to look back on a train of years that have passed, 'as an arrow through the air,' without leaving any mark behind them, without our being able to trace them in our improvement!

What better way to describe my current life situation? While I'm much older than Wesley when he wrote this, and am more than half-way done with my life, and thus maturity issues are not a factor. But I feel in my own life the urgency of accomplishment that Wesley so eloquently expressed. I find myself riding a sinusoidal wave between Wesley's arrow and Emerson's "time-enough-for-all-that-i-must-do."

Anyone have any thoughts about the blog name change?

2 comments:

Richard said...

Glad to hear that your conference has gone well... I hope it wasn't too hot for you - though, I assume most of your time was spent in doors.

I wish I had some insightful or witty names to suggest... "Arrow through the Air" is good, suggesting the transience not only of this life, but especially of this medium - that is, blogging many times is like shooting an arrow through the air - it may not make a mark.

Safe travels.

David A. Todd said...

Richard:

Thanks for your thoughts. I may make a decision by this weekend, and will likely go with "An Arrow Through the Air".

Florida was not as hot as Oklahoma City and Arkansas the whole time were were there. And, since a rainy cold front came through Arkansas the day before we came home, the house was comfortable even though we had set the AC quite a bit higher while we were gone.

DAT