Thanks, Amanda, for the February prompts at write alm. You may not have had me in mind when you put them together, but so far you're batting 1000. (Yes, I did write for yesterday's "a pretty good day". No, it wasn't developed enough for posting.)

Life is an exercise in juggling dots. I am so many things to so many people, including myself; I have done so many different things over the years, some well, some not so well, some very well; that I keep losing track of who I am and who I want to be to be. Dots, dots, dots, all over the place.

The basics are clear enough. I am a child of God, a follower of Jesus Christ, called to be an instrument of God's peace. I am husband to Corky and father to Lanse, Rob, and Nick. I am a member of the family of God, the body of Christ, specifically a member of that portion of the body gathered as the Rochester (NY) Christian Reformed Church. I'm not Dutch, but I've been hanging around these Hollanders long enough that if you speak ill of them I'm going to take it personally.

That's the easy part. I'm also a professional geek educated in the sciences, a theologian and preacher, an outdoorsman and paddler, a musician and photographer, and sometimes even a writer. I'm a left-brainer and a right-brainer. I'm the firstborn of an oops lastborn; a leader, and an incorrigible second-guesser. I haven't an entrepreneurial bone in my body, but I'm really good at figuring things out, except for figuring out how all the dots line up.

Writing is how I connect the dots. Photography illustrates and interprets the dots, but it doesn't connect them like writing does.

I guess I'll keep writing. I'll keep taking pictures, too.