It has now been ten years since I first started writing this column in early 1995. It has certainly been an interesting experience, at least for me.

I began writing shortly after the deaths of my father and mother, which both occurred in 1994. The thought was to diversify the focus of the papers a bit by adding some thoughts on national affairs as well as adding a personalized voice for our family. (On the other hand, I leave the primary mission of the papers, writing about local affairs, entirely to Meg, Ed and our highly competent editorial staff.) Actually, the concept was not completely new as my father had similar columns in the past called The Notebook and Thinking It Over. The first column was a tribute to my parents and early on came a discussion of the new Republican majority in Congress under Newt Gingrich and a tribute to the ability of baseball to act as an intergenerational bond.

Basically, the column is pretty much the same as when we started it, although the political focus is probably a bit sharper than in the early years. One good effect of writing a column is that I am forced to gevelop a coherent point of view about a number of issues. I have also learned quite a bit in researching various topics.

The deadline for the column is early Tuesday afternoon. Some weeks, of course, there is a major news story that must be addressed. Or I will have some personal story to tell, as when young Robert and I are on a trip somewhere and I am writing the column at an internet café. And some weeks, like just before Thanksgiving or Christmas, there will be obvious themes for the column.

That’s the easy part. On the other hand, some weeks seem to come up empty. I generally keep my eyes and ears open for a subject, but nothing is suitable. For example, there might be an important topic, but not 600 words to say about it. Or there is a topic that is very complex and difficult to address. For example, I will get around to expressing some views on Social Security reform, but that column will require much research, fact checking and fine tuning.

Of course, there are some things that do not appear in the column. I write about my son quite a bit but I do not give, for privacy and security reasons, a great deal of specific identifying details about him. Similarly, at my wife’s request, I wrote almost nothing about her long and difficult last illness. More globally, I am very conscious that I am writing a fairly low-key column for my family’s community newspapers and I try to avoid extremely divisive or contentious pieces. Accordingly, I try to recognize diverse points of view, even if I may not agree with them, and avoid extremely harsh rhetoric or name calling. For related reasons, I rarely write about hot button social issues like abortion and gay marriage.

Much has happened in the ten years that I have been writing, both for me personally and for our country. In 1995, for example, the Oklahoma City bombing was a major story but the international crisis in the Middle East was pretty much on the back burner. My son turned one year old at the time and he will be turning eleven soon. And of course, Maureen was a crucial part of my life. But life goes on, and so does the column, hopefully for many years to come.