Jim Tilson
Ruminations of a joyful widower.
Hello, World!
My name is Jim Tilson. Who am I?
My personal brain care specialist says “vell, Jim Tilson is just zis guy, you know?”1
“Zis guy” is also a widower twice-over, doing my best to raise my teenagers in a loving home and to live the hope of Christ’s resurrection. I’m also a software developer by trade; I enjoy good food, drink, and time with friends around the dinner table; I love opera (hence the blog title’s variation on the operetta title “The Merry Widow”); I occasionally knit; I devour mystery novels; I’m taking beginning tap dance lessons; I’m training for doing voice-over work; and whenever I can I travel and make friends both foreign and domestic.
I’d kicked around the idea of blogging for years, but just never got off the dime. It’s also (10^6 + 1) things to do crossed with ADHD for why I hadn’t put my butt in a chair and started typing heretofore.
This week I attended an amazing retreat with more than 20 other guys who are also carrying the cross of widowerhood. I’ve waited almost 25 years for something like this. For the first time in years I didn’t feel like the freak in the room, with “one of these things is not like the other” playing in my head. Coming off the retreat, I’ve felt a challenge to do something with grief and pain other than just hanging on and getting by.
Of thoughts and ruminations, that might possibly assist, I’ve got a little list, I’ve got a little list…2
If I can share anything that can be of encouragement to anyone else, then Glory to God for that. Anything true is of God. Any heresies are my own. Or just recycled variations on old ones–I’m not original. I hope to have enough experts following me to help me keep it on the rails and I’ll make corrections as we go. Professionally trained theologians preferred; Sunday afternoon quarterbacks will be politely thanked and their feedback taken under advisement.
There may also be the occasional joke (sometimes off-color, please forgive me, but my sense of humor can tend toward the Anglo-Saxon at times), thoughts about software development, food and drink pics, or humorous musings on child-rearing. We’ll see where all this goes.
God bless you all and grant you a wonderful day! See you on the first post!
JT
Footnotes
1 Gag Halfrunt, “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
2 “The Mikado”
The Joyful Widower 