This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Tributes keep pouring in for Michael Gerson, the Washington Post columnist and former speech writer for President George Bush, who died a couple days ago, far too soon at the age of 58.

Tributes?  For good reason.

Gerson was not a perfect human being.  No one is. 

But he lived with grace and style, including the ability to put good words together to make solid points that prompted thought and reflection.

As I said in a previous blog post commemorating his death after a long battle with cancer, he was one of my favorite writers.  He had a notable ability to advocate for a point-of-view, his, even as he allowed others to disagree with him.

One of his consummate abilities:  To disagree agreeably.

Another:  His credentials as a committed Christian who lived his faith.

Here are just a couple of the new accolades, both from colleagues at the Washington Post:

FROM OPINION COLUMNIST KAREN TUMULTY:  “One of the biblical injunctions sometimes cited by Michael Gerson Comes from the New Testament book of Colossians:  ‘Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.’

“That advice works not only for Christian believers such as he was, but also in the sometimes brutal political world in which he made his mark.  He was a presidential speechwriter whose own words were, indeed, singularly seasoned and notably full of grace.

“But civility, as Mike also noted, does not preclude tough-mindedness. Nor should it be mistaken for a lack of principles or perspective. His own were rooted in the faith that fueled and defined his involvement with politics, and he was scorching in his assessment of his fellow evangelicals when theirs took what he saw as a more cynical turn.

“In a September essay, he wrote these supposedly conservative Christians ‘have broadly chosen the company of Trump supporters who deny any role for character in politics and define any useful villainy as virtue.  In the place of integrity, the Trump movement has elevated a warped kind of authenticity — the authenticity of unfiltered abuse, imperious ignorance, untamed egotism and reflexive bigotry.’

“’This,’ Mike wrote, ‘is inconsistent with Christianity by any orthodox measure.’”

FROM JEN BALDERAMA, POST ASSOCIATE EDITOR:  “As news of his death spread, the tributes poured in, with friends and admirers remembering Mike’s humanity and grace.  Many responded to my colleague Karen Tumulty’s gorgeous column on the way Mike’s faith ‘fueled and defined his involvement with politics,’ and animated his life. 

“President George Bush highlighted Mike’s role as a ‘key catalyst’ behind PEPFAR, the global AIDS initiative that has saved millions of lives, recalling that Mike urged: ‘If we can do this and we don’t, it will be a source of national shame.’ 

“Samantha Power, the USAID administrator, called Mike’s death ‘shattering news.’  He reminded us, she wrote, ‘that we are each agents in history who can do harm or good, be bystanders or upstanders. Mike did unforgettable good.’ 

“Of course, critics came out, too, pointing to what they called a mixed legacy at best, given Mike’s involvement in crafting the messaging that led to the Iraq War. 

“I can’t claim to have known Michael Gerson in full; I had the privilege of editing him for less than two years.  He and I didn’t talk about Iraq, and we probably would have disagreed on that and plenty else. But none of that mattered. 

“Here, I’ll turn to something my colleague Ruth Marcus said on NewsHour the day Mike died, about how principled people can vehemently disagree about all sorts of questions and still esteem and care for one another. 

“Mike believed, she said, that the path to the just society we all want ‘was to take the high road, to not belittle others, to not demean others, to not cast doubt on people.  You could disagree with people’s views without disagreeing with and undermining and attacking their motives and their honesty and decency.’”

There you have it — more tributes.

Mine remains this:  Michael Gerson displayed a particular ability to animate our thoughts in a solid direction, to emphasize the idea that people of goodwill and good intent could argue about points-of-view, but still respect each other.  And, perhaps even learn from another’s perspective.

Demonstrating this ability in the often-soiled world of politics requires strength and character.  Mike had both, even as he displayed to the world his genuine Christianity while rebuking those who departed from principles of faith. 

Finally, Gerson said one of his favorite lines was one he wrote for President Bush who was speaking at a prayer service three days after the 9-11 tragedy: 

“Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time.  Goodness, remembrance, and love have no end and the Lord of life holds all who die and all who mourn.”

Good words at the time by Gerson.  Good words today as we look back on a life well lived before God.