I am not entirely sure what this site will become. I think that is part of the appeal.
I have spent much of my life trying to understand things a little better, make reasonably good decisions, and then adjust when the evidence suggests I was wrong. That applies to fitness, relationships, aging, money, travel, and most of the ordinary choices that, taken together, end up becoming a life.
I tend to be deliberate by nature. I like plans. I like numbers. I like knowing why I am doing something rather than simply accepting that it is what people are supposed to do. At the same time, I have become increasingly appreciative of the fact that a well-planned life should create more freedom, not less of it.
That distinction has become more important to me as I have gotten older.
Money, for example, is interesting to me, but accumulating it for its own sake is not. Its real value is the freedom and optionality it can provide. Fitness is much the same. I have little interest in chasing youth, but a great deal of interest in preserving strength, capability, independence, and the ability to continue doing the things I enjoy. Aging is inevitable. How we participate in it is somewhat less so.
I am fortunate to spend significant parts of my life in two very different places—South Florida and Helsinki, Finland. The contrast is considerable, which is part of what I enjoy about it. Different climates, rhythms, cultures, and ways of looking at the world have a way of making familiar assumptions a little easier to see.
That curiosity probably explains this site better than anything else.
There will likely be writing here about health and fitness, money and retirement, travel, food, getting older, technology, and whatever else happens to capture my attention. Some pieces may be carefully considered. Others may simply be observations that seemed worth writing down.
I don't intend to turn this into a business. I am not trying to become an influencer, establish a publishing schedule, or manufacture opinions because Tuesday has arrived and something needs to be posted. There is quite enough content in the world already.
I would rather write when I have something I genuinely want to say.
Nor do I assume that what works for me necessarily works for anyone else. One of the advantages of getting older is accumulating enough experience—and, hopefully, a bit of wisdom—to recognize how often certainty turns out to be temporary. I still have strong opinions. I simply try to hold them with enough humility to change them when better information comes along.
“Trust but verify” is probably not a bad description of how I approach most things.
What interests me increasingly is the relationship between the decisions we make today and the freedom we have tomorrow. Saving money can create financial freedom. Maintaining strength can create physical freedom. Taking care of relationships creates something harder to quantify but considerably more important. And sometimes freedom means having constructed life well enough that an ordinary day—some exercise, a good dinner, time with the people you love, perhaps nowhere in particular that you need to be—is more than enough.
I don't know how many people will eventually read what appears here. That isn't really the point. If something I write provides a little inspiration, offers a useful perspective, or simply causes someone to stop and think about something differently, that would be more than enough.
I wanted a place of my own to think in public occasionally, to preserve ideas that seem worth preserving, and perhaps to start a conversation with someone who sees things differently.
That seems like a good enough reason to begin.