Name change

Why Citizen 2,840,201,999?

Why the last number? Which I've somehow forgotten, by the way.

I came up with the original name for this blog off the top of my head, thinking it was about where I would stand in the rankings if a global census sorted the human race by birth order. I assumed that given there were about 6.2 billion people at the time, and I was in my early 30's, I was somewhere just after the middle.

Now I've since learned that there are more people alive today who were born after me, so I've moved up in the rankings. I assume now that I am the 2,840,201,999th person who showed up on this planet one day and had to figure out how to get by.

I picked the word 'citizen' because of a sense that we're all here on the same planet, and we may as well recognize each others' common values as much we can. I write mine down part of my journey here on occasion.

I study government and public policy as a reporter, in part because I feel a sense that there's a common space where we can work out issues between us. I believe in civility, and acting in good faith, and trying to be generous to one another.

Of course, it doesn't always work out that way.

History often gets written down because the conflicts are worth remembering. I write my own history down as a way to sort out how I can do better next time. I write down public history so I can hopefully help others do the same thing, especially now that I'm a little older and I've got a lot of responsibility.

I write here as a way of telling the world what I want it to know about me. I don't write publicly nearly as much as I used to, because I find myself picking every word here carefully. I've too often posted a little too much about myself.

Privately, I've been writing up a storm lately, trying to capture what happened this summer and how far I've come since the divorce and how far I still have to go. I'm blessed to have the opportunity to live my life, and to try to document it as I move my way higher up the leader board.