A few days ago I received a nomination for the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award”. I was pleasantly surprised and honored by this nomination. I inspired someone, which is quite an achievement in my humble opinion. It’s also not something that I hear very often considering the subjects of my writing. Between history, philosophy and religion, most people who care to read my work often share comments such as, “I didn’t understand most of it, but I liked it!” This leads me to believe I have issues clarifying and connecting certain points – a criticism I’m striving to eliminate. I also understand that the majority who come into contact with these subjects aren’t doing so because they’re interested, but are more often asked to; usually through school assignments, or in my case, asking friends and family to read my work. Why am I blathering on about this? Because it’s not often that we “inspire” others in this particular line of writing, and so, N. Filbert gave me a little nudge forward that was much appreciated. Moreover, N. Filbert’s posts are far more inspiring than mine, so in a sense he has continued his tradition of inspiring others – Filbert, you seem to be fairly good at this!
Unaware of what this award was, and honored to have been thought of, I began conducting some WordPress searches. I found a number of people that received this award in the past, and discovered what it was about. It’s not really a nomination, per se; as the nomination doubles as the election. Simply put, by being nominated, I have won! Also, there are some rules that accompany this award, and I have found that it’s fairly similar to a chain letter – in all candor, this turned me slightly off. However, because it put a smile on my face and reinforced some of the reasons I decided to start writing, I’ve decided to take part in the chain. I hope it arouses a similar response in those that I have nominated, as their contributions to my experience on WordPress have been nothing short of inspirational.
So without further ado, I present both the rules and my nominations:
Rules
- Display the Nomination logo on your blog
- Link back to the person who nominated you
- State 7 things about yourself
- Nominate 15 others and link to them
- Notify those bloggers of the nominations & award requirement
Seven things about myself
- I’m a writer. This may sound trite, but it took me some time to realize this, and even more time to accept and pursue it. I’m a writer – it has a nice sound to it.
- I dislike writing about myself. I predict this will limit the length of my autobiography, if I choose to one day write one.
- I read a lot.
- I’ve been in a “battle” with my three year old niece since she was a couple weeks old. I swear she started plotting my demise before she could crawl. Elmo is my best friend and My Little Ponies is my favorite show, not hers!
- I’ve held some strange jobs. I’ve cleaned theaters, narrated city sewage inspection videos, busted tires, served in the Marine Corps, manufactured cardboard boxes, and most recently worked in project management for a defense contractor. I’ve actually enjoyed this quite a lot because it has allowed me to work with people from every background imaginable.
- I’m an atheist. Honestly, I revert back and forth between agnostic and atheist, but I really prefer to identify myself differently. Atheism identifies me as something I am not, rather than something I am. Utilitarian, empiricist, and naturalist all are more representative, but alas we are relegated to identify one another by the positions we take on things we can’t support definitively either way.
- My major philosophical influences, in no particular order are Epicurus, Aurelius, Rousseau, Voltaire, Paine, Locke, Hume, Bentham, J.S. Mill, Comte and The Hitch.
My nominations
Makagutu: For your insightful and clever Bible summaries. You have inspired me to stay dedicated as exemplified by your pursuit to understand the Bible, line by line.
N. Filbert: For your thought provoking poetry and visual arts. Thank you, sir.
Fourat J: For your struggle to bring injustices and ignorance to our attention. I really enjoy reading your articles.
David Alexanders: For your stunning paintings. I cannot say enough about these. They are unique and mesmerizing. You have captured the effects of light perfectly.
Nannus: For your vast knowledge on a number of different fronts. I especially enjoy those relating to international headlines.
John Zande: For your imagination and storytelling ability. I love that your topics are interesting in themselves, but you still spice them up a bit.
Richard William Posner: For your wisdom and wealth of resources. I still have faith that we can turn this ship around, and it is people like you that will help us accomplish it.
hobbit-humanist: For your witty posts and efforts to spread humanism. One of your recent posts regarding the relation between crime and religion was truly eye-opening.
I didn’t nominate the required 15, but the bloggers above are truly worthy of the award. Thanks again.
Categories: Philosophy
R. L. Culpeper 
How recursive – thank you very much sir.
Your list of “philosophical influences” is probably one of the scariest things I’ve seen in a long time…
I would bet you have a skewed understanding of their philosophies, if that is the case. There’s not one man in the list that wasn’t a proponent of peace and reason. Of course, you are free to your opinion.
As a matter of fact, I do, mostly because I also held them in high esteem at some time. As to be proponents of peace and reason, that can also be done in a very twisted way.
Thank you very much for the nomination and for the kind words. I hardly think of myself as inspiring, I just have fun with the bible. I had taken to study it seriously at an earlier age, I would be into something else now.
Meh, it’s the little things. Consider it this way: you’re doing more than most.
Honoured doesn’t cut it, but its the best word i have. I will, of course, re-nominate you as my new-found philosophy teacher. Those don’t come along every day. Sometimes they don’t come along throughout an entire lifetime. My short time on WP has been an eyeopener, a pleasure and an adventure… and you good sir fall under each of those categories 🙂
I’m not worthy of such a title and the honor is all mine, John. Cheers!
Thanks R.L, it did indeed put a smile on my face also. Anything you said of me, I would say doubly and trebly back at you. Your writing is great, succinct, and informative, and I look forward to reading more. Thank you very much!
Just caught up with my blog and noticed your comment regarding the nomination, sincere thanks indeed !