“Writing is the only way I have to explain my own life to myself.”
That line has stayed with me because I understand it more today than I ever have.
I don’t write because I have all the answers. Quite the opposite. I write because I still have questions—about life, love, family, faith, justice, power, disappointment, forgiveness, and all the unexpected turns a life can take.
Writing is how I sort through them.
There have been chapters of my life I understood only years after I lived them. People I loved. People I lost. Mistakes I made. Battles I probably should have walked away from—and others I remain grateful I refused to abandon.
I’ve experienced enough of life to know that things rarely turn out exactly as we planned.
Careers change. Relationships change. Families go through difficult seasons. People disappoint us. Institutions we trusted sometimes disappoint us too. We lose people we thought would always be there.
And every once in a while, life surprises us by putting someone or something wonderful in our path when we weren’t looking for it.
Writing helps me make sense of all of that.
But somewhere along the way, something changed.
I realized I wasn’t writing only for myself anymore.
I was writing for you.
And today, there are 35,000 of you.
The Valley Viewpoint has just recorded its 35,000th subscriber.
I have to admit, that number stopped me for a moment.
Thirty-five thousand people have made the decision to invite these words into their lives.
That’s humbling.
Because I never wanted The Valley Viewpoint to become another place where someone tells you what you’re supposed to think.
There are plenty of those already.
I wanted this to be a conversation.
A place where we ask uncomfortable questions. Where we challenge government when it deserves challenging, question institutions when they deserve questioning, and occasionally have enough humility to question ourselves.
Some of you agree with me most of the time.
Some of you disagree with me regularly—and aren’t shy about telling me.
Good.
Keep doing it.
Because 35,000 subscribers shouldn’t mean I have 35,000 people agreeing with me.
It means 35,000 people have decided the conversation is worth having.
That means far more to me.
I’ve spent much of my life using my voice—on the radio, in business, in advocacy, and occasionally by being the guy in the room willing to ask the question everyone else seems determined to avoid.
Writing is different.
Writing slows me down.
It gives me time to think before I speak. To reconsider. To research. To remember. Sometimes to laugh at myself. Occasionally to admit I was wrong.
And it allows me to share something more personal than an opinion.
A little bit of myself.
That’s probably why these pages have never been only about politics.
I write about government because power should be questioned.
I write about courts because justice should withstand scrutiny.
I write about community because this is our home.
I write about family, friendship, faith and love because, after enough years, you begin to understand those are the things that actually matter.
And increasingly, I write about life itself.
About getting older without becoming old.
About second chances.
About mistakes.
About gratitude.
About discovering that happiness sometimes arrives quietly—and that you can become so accustomed to waiting for the next problem that you forget to enjoy the good things while they’re happening.
I suspect many of you understand that.
That’s the connection I feel with the people who read these pages.
You bring your experiences to what I write. I bring mine.
We don’t have to agree on everything. Frankly, that would make this pretty boring.
But perhaps we can be honest with each other.
I’ll tell you what I see. I’ll tell you what I believe. I’ll try to tell you when I don’t know.
And occasionally I’ll tell you something about myself that I am still trying to understand.
Because after all these years, I am.
Still learning.
Still questioning.
Still changing.
Still trying to make sense of this remarkable, frustrating, heartbreaking, funny and occasionally beautiful thing called life.
So maybe that quotation isn’t quite complete for me anymore.
Writing is the way I explain my own life to myself.
But sharing that writing with you reminds me that none of us is trying to figure out life entirely alone.
Thirty-five thousand subscribers isn’t a number to me. It’s 35,000 people on the other side of this page.
You bring your story.
I bring mine.
And somewhere between the two, perhaps we understand ourselves—and each other—a little better.
That’s why I write.
And to every one of the 35,000 of you who has decided to come along for the ride:
Thank you.
A Valley Viewpoint Narrative
