Onward and Upward to 2010!

Well, another year is in the can. I can't say that 2009 was altogether a good year -- I spent the whole year unemployed. It has, however, led me to do what I should have done a long time ago. I am a professional freelance writer at last. This is all I ever really wanted to do, anyway.

We can get lulled, by relatively good times, into trying to play it safe. But a life of doing nothing but playing it safe is really nothing more than a living death. I believe I'm now doing what I was put on this earth to do. That's the only way to truly live.

I guess, as I have finally come to realize, I am one of those rare and endangered birds known as a gay conservative. A "Goldwater" conservative, surely -- a classical liberal -- a libertarian. But that still, along with my Christian faith, sets me squarely on the Rightward end of the spectrum.

This in itself means that life will not be easy. I may never be an accepted member of the "club." But I have greater obligations to consider. I must follow my heart and stand for all I believe to be true. I will get plenty of flak for this. But as one of my heroes in the faith, Martin Luther, once proclaimed, "Here I stand, and so help me God, I can do nothing else."

No more playing it safe for me. I must answer the call of a Higher Authority. In 2010, it will be onward and upward for me.

I only hope and pray that, for the sake of this country, 2010 will bring many others onward and upward, as well.