About |
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Who is "I"? ... Uh, who am I? |
In these pages, the personal pronoun, "I", refers to Ron Tobey, who designed and wrote these pages, unless otherwise indicated. |
Delay |
I first put this web site online in 1998. I wanted to introduce my family and life to my friends and family. I also hoped that the web site would be a project to which I could invite my large, extended family to contribute. I conceived of tobeyfamily.org as a companion site to lucknow.com. As it turned out, both web sites have generated much satisfying e-mail correspondence and discussion, on those rare occasions when I am with my relatives, face to face. In 2002, I made major changes. I also proposed an even greater expansion of content, involving putting photos and biographies of all my relatives onto genealogical maps; alas, I did not have the time to fulfill this overly ambitious scheme. Now, five years later, I have finally redesigned the site and started to add new content. |
9-11 |
The ten years over which I have maintained (and neglected) this web site have been eventful for me. Nine-eleven dramatically impacted our family. Both of our children--Amy and David--were at the World Trade Center that morning. They walked out of Manhattan to safety in Brooklyn (thank you, God), but the event changed their lives. I talk about these changes in the pages that provide portraits of them and in two essays about the day. |
Paradigm Shift |
Nine-eleven shocked and distressed me. More importantly, it forcefully opened a window to a new view of the world. As a result, my philosophy of life changed. For my entire adult life, I had been a political liberal toward the left end of the spectrum, though with some conservative impulses (I was always a believer in individualism and opposed collectivism). I was also an atheist. I identified myself as a secular humanist. I presented this perspective in my teaching, when it was relevant and appropriate to the content I was teaching. In the 1990s, I decided to devote part of my retirement to advancing secular humanism through publication. I registered several Internet domain names for humanism and planned to create humanist web sites. I wrote some of the essays at tobeyfamily.org to explore secular humanist themes--"Grace", "Heritage", "Randomness, Death, and the Meaning of Life," and "The Old Spirit". These essays were written when I was thinking through the phenomenology of Martin Heidegger and reflect some of that philosophy's vocabulary and ideas. Nine-eleven changed my plans completely. Liberal, secular humanism now seemed to be one of the problems America faced, not a solution to anything. I moved toward conservative social and political values and positions. I re-examined my agnostic posture toward religion and faith. I would not say that I have become a man of faith, that is a leap I have not been able to make; but I have become a man of sympathy toward faith, with honest impulses rather than critical questions. I also began to re-evaluate and criticize my old philosophical positions. As a long-term writing project, I decided to focus on the origin, nature, and role of "values" as a philosophical problem in which to explore my new conservatism. Two essays testify to 9/11 turning point in my life and the lives of my wife and children, "Our Lucky Day", and "The Rupture in Our World". In mid-2004, I started publishing a pseudonymous blog, in which I explore my conservative point of view and ideas in a preliminary way. Ideas that have some legs, so speak, I develop into more substantial essays. I will republish them here. |
Speak for Themselves |
The changes induced in the lives of my wife, daughter, and son, by 9-11 were also dramatic. I don't want to speak for them, however. They are, each of them, decisively their own persons. They would argue with any characterization I might make of their philosophies or style. |
You, too! |
I invite my family members, who might not have their own sites for web publication, to avail themselves of tobeyfamily.org. Just contact me at ronald@tobeyfamily.org and let me know. |
Our Farming Future |
We will eventually leave California. We have purchased farm land in West Virginia and will take up farming there. Our farm is "Full Circle Farm" and we share our plans at our web site, www.full-circle-farm.org (opens in new window). Please visit us there. |
March 8, 15, 2007; September 3, 2007. |