Perspective from the 19^th Hole 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.

I have thought a bit about this blog headline since I started writing “Perspective from the 19^th Hole” a few years ago.

So far, I have written hundreds of them, though I took a pause late last year, but have started writing again.

On this Friday morning, as I relax a bit before heading out to the golf course, I reflect on this question:  Why do I write my blog?

There is no one word or one phrase answer, but I suggest this…

• First, I like to write, given my professional background, so it is purposeful for me to keep doing what I like to do.

• Second, I have not much else to do in retirement, so I keep writing.

• Third, commenting on golf, politics and other subjects, means I need to stay connected, at least to a degree, as I keep looking for new topics and researching those subjects (where, I add, I often rely on Mr. Google, not to mention several of past state lobbying colleagues).

• Fourth, in retirement, I am no longer involved in dealing directly with public policy issues, so the best I can do is write about them – which suits me just fine.  And, to put a point on it, if I cannot criticize the worst president in history face-to-face — Donald Trump — then I want to write about that buffoon who, as the epitome of an egotist, thinks only of himself, and not America.

• Fifth, it is a bit of release to write what I think rather than keeping it inside.

• Sixth, writing what I think to be accurate is a good antidote to all of those who use social media for their own ends, usually with honesty and accuracy a lost art.

In the years of my blog, I have not worked to cultivate a readership.  My blog is available on-line, but that’s as far as it goes – and that works for me.

So, I tell myself, with these limited ends in mind, write on.