Okay, the explanation

Why did we shut down - go password protected - then even close that down?

Why did I subsequently close a bunch of my other blogs? Why did I swear off the blogosphere?

Any number of reasons. I suppose that a return here necessarily begs the question. I'll try to answer them briefly, and then talk about some of the things we might be attempting in this second iteration of True Restoration.

1. Why - well, because I had to. When True Restoration was in full growth, it was a hobby outgrowth of free time. I had a well-established, flourishing business, vacationed 6 weeks a year, and had plenty of time to write and read. When I moved to Kansas City, I simply lacked the time to write well-polished posts.

2. Why did we shut down and go private - well, answering ninnys had grown tedious, and it was a lot easier to talk frankly with those who didn't assume bad will from you from the start. It was often assumed that I was arrogating a responsibility to myself, that I was being a priest, that blah blah blah. The Church is in eclipse, but we as laymen can't comment. I got tired of that.

3. Why did I swear off the blogosphere and shut down the other blogs. - I needed time to drive down deep roots into a new town, a new business, and a new life. I've also started graduate classes for my MBA and have continued to pursue some other ventures.

True Restoration did not lack a certainty of tone. At times, it was too certain. It certainly did not lack for diversity of topics. We attempted to cover the totality of the lived lay life. A lot of those articles will appear here in re-printed and re-edited form over time. What the original True Restoration shed, as I did, was all its idealism. We realized that none of our good ideals mattered and that even Trads were capable of the deepest cynicism. We realized that the uncertainty of the current situation in the Church undercut all good efforts, and that, for now, any attempt at re-uniting or re-establishing Christendom was a non-starter. Because intellectualism has to have as its end some practicality - writing about great ideas when so few were open to even discussing them was really pointless. I don't doubt that we made some headway, caused some discussion, stirred the pot. But at the end of the day, many people were fundamentally unwilling to question the daily routines of their life (though I'm very grateful for the heartfelt letters of the few who did), and my youthful optimism was thoroughly disheartened.

Because the easiest line of attack was always about religion and Catholicism and whose interpretation of what who said about which, we will attempt to remove those easy arrows. The posts we will write here will start from the fundamental premise that there is a God and there is objective truth - but then we will veer off into unknown territory for many Trads - the world of learning and of books! We'll start there and see where we go next.

I am only sure of one thing - I will not make the same mistakes I did the first time around.