My name is Matthew Booth, and I think too much. At the time of writing this I am 26 years old (closer to 27 than 26) my my life is unnervingly confusing . It seems that I am wandering around, enduring the painful yet exciting and, at times, beffudling transmutation between “young adult” and full-fledged Adult. I’m never quite sure of things and that has me thinking… constantly. In attempt to make sense of my past, the present and the ever intimidating future, my mind plays and replays thoughts, memories and scenarios.
But it has always been this way hasn’t it? When I was a kid I can remember laying awake in bed, the clockwork of my mind rotating its gears and depriving me of sleep. For as long as I can remember I have always concocted fictitious events, and create dialogue in my mind, working through some sort of jacked-up “choose your own adventure”. Maybe everyone did/does that though. Perhaps we exist on islands of feelings and thoughts, founded on the belief that we inherited a uniqueness to how we view and cope with the world, but I am beginning to believe that all of our islands are deceptively close. On some innate and primal level we all basically feel and think the same, it just comes out confused and unintelligible.
Two paragraphs in and I am already off topic.
See what happened there? My mind wandered off on some tangent. Back to why I am maintaining this blog under the title of After the One.
I, like everyone else, believe that I have a lot of important things to say bouncing around in my head. They may just be important to me, but I hope some of the issues I discuss will strike a nerve with someone else. The goal is not to get other people thinking like me, or saying what I say or believing what I believe (well not entirely anyways). I inherited a lot of things from my dad, but the three more obvious things are 1) my anger 2) my confusing way of communicating and 3) my desire to be heard.
I once asked my dad how his mind felt as his body began to age and show signs of slowing down. He told me that his mind still thought it was in its 20’s and was frustrated that his body was not. Well… crap, looks like I’m stuck with this awkward way of thinking for at least 50 more years.
The etymology of After the One
The term “after the one” has it’s roots in a parable of Jesus, but I am borrowing it for a while and broadening it’s scope. “The One”, to me, starts out as being anything, at any time, that feels worthy of pursuit. As life’s little gems of frustration have taught me, the seeds of effort do not always flower into something beautiful. More often than not I’m left staring at a clumps of crab grass overtaking the garden of my mind. Eventually though, something worthy of awe will bloom. That’s the One.
Eventually, I would like no topics to be off-limits on this site. My mind conjures up some messed up junk, but I honestly believe that there’s a lot up there, between my ears, that is useful, enlightening and worth reading. I know of very few people who fillet their mind’s and souls under the scrutiny and judgment of their fellow man. To some degree we all open ourselves up to friends or family, but I am talking about larger audiences. Audiences composed of honest and sincere people, yes, but an audience that also has an adequate peppering of cynical, judgmental and dishonest hearts.
The Earth is built on rules and so is After the One
As far as I can see it, I have two major rules governing what I write about:
I will not disrespect or slander God or my wife (I will try to do the same for anyone else who makes their way into an article), and
I will allow the presentation of critique and objections while doing my best to understand the meaning and intentions behind such reactions. I will not allow, however, any disrespect on After the One in the comments being made. I am the god of this site and I retain the right to judge/remove whatever appears on the site.
I plan on writing about religion, politics, family, depression, anger, joy, love, being a husband, and the lessons and musings of unrestrained self examination. Basically I plan on writing about whatever plagues my days and my nights.
If something doesn’t make sense, let me know what it is. Chances are it didn’t make much sense in my head either.
After the What?
My name is Matthew Booth, and I think too much. At the time of writing this I am 26 years old (closer to 27 than 26) my my life is unnervingly confusing . It seems that I am wandering around, enduring the painful yet exciting and, at times, beffudling transmutation between “young adult” and full-fledged Adult. I’m never quite sure of things and that has me thinking… constantly. In attempt to make sense of my past, the present and the ever intimidating future, my mind plays and replays thoughts, memories and scenarios.
But it has always been this way hasn’t it? When I was a kid I can remember laying awake in bed, the clockwork of my mind rotating its gears and depriving me of sleep. For as long as I can remember I have always concocted fictitious events, and create dialogue in my mind, working through some sort of jacked-up “choose your own adventure”. Maybe everyone did/does that though. Perhaps we exist on islands of feelings and thoughts, founded on the belief that we inherited a uniqueness to how we view and cope with the world, but I am beginning to believe that all of our islands are deceptively close. On some innate and primal level we all basically feel and think the same, it just comes out confused and unintelligible.
Two paragraphs in and I am already off topic.
See what happened there? My mind wandered off on some tangent. Back to why I am maintaining this blog under the title of After the One.
I, like everyone else, believe that I have a lot of important things to say bouncing around in my head. They may just be important to me, but I hope some of the issues I discuss will strike a nerve with someone else. The goal is not to get other people thinking like me, or saying what I say or believing what I believe (well not entirely anyways). I inherited a lot of things from my dad, but the three more obvious things are 1) my anger 2) my confusing way of communicating and 3) my desire to be heard.
I once asked my dad how his mind felt as his body began to age and show signs of slowing down. He told me that his mind still thought it was in its 20’s and was frustrated that his body was not. Well… crap, looks like I’m stuck with this awkward way of thinking for at least 50 more years.
The etymology of After the One
The term “after the one” has it’s roots in a parable of Jesus, but I am borrowing it for a while and broadening it’s scope. “The One”, to me, starts out as being anything, at any time, that feels worthy of pursuit. As life’s little gems of frustration have taught me, the seeds of effort do not always flower into something beautiful. More often than not I’m left staring at a clumps of crab grass overtaking the garden of my mind. Eventually though, something worthy of awe will bloom. That’s the One.
Eventually, I would like no topics to be off-limits on this site. My mind conjures up some messed up junk, but I honestly believe that there’s a lot up there, between my ears, that is useful, enlightening and worth reading. I know of very few people who fillet their mind’s and souls under the scrutiny and judgment of their fellow man. To some degree we all open ourselves up to friends or family, but I am talking about larger audiences. Audiences composed of honest and sincere people, yes, but an audience that also has an adequate peppering of cynical, judgmental and dishonest hearts.
The Earth is built on rules and so is After the One
As far as I can see it, I have two major rules governing what I write about:
I plan on writing about religion, politics, family, depression, anger, joy, love, being a husband, and the lessons and musings of unrestrained self examination. Basically I plan on writing about whatever plagues my days and my nights.
If something doesn’t make sense, let me know what it is. Chances are it didn’t make much sense in my head either.