OK, here goes...

So, here I am.  If you look at the profile, you'll see me described as a "relatively competent musicologist" who has committed to a change of path.  In a little more than two months I'll be enrolling at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, to begin a Master of Divinity degree.  This at the tender age of forty-six.  Hardly the oldest to go off on this path, but hardly young either.
I'm not sure which is the more foolish "errand"; the change of career path, or starting this blog.  I promise you I have nothing particularly original to say.  I'm quite sure others have experienced what I will experience, or worse, or better, and will have expressed it quite well without the vanity of opening up a blog.  I can't promise I'll be a diligent daily blogger, or wow anyone with my dazzling prose or witty commentary.  I can't even promise I'll stick to the putative subject of the path to pastoral perdition.  I'm as likely to wander off on tangents such as music and its history and uses (the love I leave behind), baseball and its discontents, the weather (as a nice thunderstorm rolls in), or all manner of other possible distractions.
But then, all of that stuff doesn't really separate, does it?  It's all life, and whether or not I may eventually preach on it doesn't keep it from mattering, whether in a grand or insignificant way.  Not that John Calvin would particularly care about, say, the Royals' impatience at the plate or the continuing neglect of the very fine composer George Whitefield Chadwick (he would regard these as nonessentials, I'd guess), but it's all part of my life and fair game.
As I type this, the Weather Channel is covering an apparent flurry of tornadoes striking the state of Arkansas tonight.  I can't not care, even if I've only been to Arkansas once in my life.  If one of God's children suffers, Christ no doubt suffers with them, and if I'm going to be with Christ in this whole life endeavor, how do I get to avoid some kind of compassion?  So I feel a little something die inside, and wonder at the destructiveness of creation, and wonder what little I can do in the face of my soon-to-be-highly occupied time and vanishing financial resources (this move won't be cheap, folks, and giving up an income smarts something fierce, not to mention getting clobbered on selling our house).
So on occasion, thoughts, prayers, random musings, trial sermons, and who knows what else will pour forth in this location.  Feel free to comment, suggest, agree, disagree, sympathize, constructively chastise, or whatever moves you (but keep it clean and civil, people).  I'd be particularly interested in hearing from other second-career types, folks who've done this move before from other perfectly happy careers, but for now no restrictions on commenting.  My intent isn't to be particularly controversial--I'm just not that smart.  But it isn't impossible.
If anything, I simply hope that somehow, by the grace of God, something that happens here might resonate with someone else, whether on a similar path or not.  Perhaps some of our mutual burdens might be borne, or mutual woes shared.  Maybe we can help each other out.  So let's find out, o.k.?