The Article Writer

It must be Friday as I have lost all of my senses and have tagged myself for a meme. Yes, just nine days removed from publishing Death To The Meme Movement, an article skewering the very same topic, I have done an about face and have tagged myself.

Let it be known to all of the world that Matt Keegan has irretrievably lost it.

A Heritage Meme

This meme is a bit different, one that focuses on my heritage. For the record: I am an American and fully subscribe to “E Pluribus Unum” or “Out of Many, One” when describing myself. I believe diversity comes naturally and I am not some sort of hyphenated American. That being said, here is what I know about my heritage:

Emigrating Eire

My father’s side of the family — Keegan — is Irish with perhaps a wee bit of Scottish thrown in. My grandparents were raised in County Armagh, which is now part of what is known as Northern Ireland (or Ulster). Back in the early 1890s when they immigrated to the US, all 26 Irish counties were under British control. Grandmother Keegan, who was 21 when she sailed for New York in 1897, was unmarried and her maiden name was Hughes. She met up with relatives who were already living in Brooklyn, NY. Her ship, City of Rome, had caught fire before arriving safely in New York. Talk about a warm welcome, sheesh!

Grandfather Keegan was about the same age as his future wife when he emigrated to the US by way of Canada. We know he was in Toronto for a while before he ended up in New York. Supposedly, Teresa Hughes and Thomas Keegan did not know each other when they lived in Armagh, but they met in New York and were married about one year later (Factoid: Irish immigrants met up and stuck with their native townspeople in overcrowded New York). They had eleven children with my father, Joseph, being one of the younger ones in the family. Continue Reading »

I have proclaimed an edict, an edict that I am able to declare as king over my own domain. My URL domain, that is.

From this point forward if anyone tags me for a meme, I will no longer play that game. It is over. Finished. Kaput. We are through.

Yes, I am starting an anti-meme movement and for several reasons. They are:

• Who ever thought up such a dumb idea?
• Does anyone care how I manage my personal and business time?
• Isn’t anyone embarrassed about how much personal information that some people are sharing? Yikes!
• How did the word “meme” come into existence anyway? My Merriam-Webster dictionary shows that the word got started in 1975. Well, I am a lot older than a meme so go ahead and slink off into the corner, kiddo meme!
• The word sounds French. That CANNOT be good!

Don’t bother tagging me as I am now officially meme-proof. If you do, I’ll ignore your move and I may even get a little bit snarky.

Yep, too late for that.

Lillie Ammann tagged me with a meme — you know, the “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture” word of our day (as described by the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Lillie’s meme has to do with balancing work/life issues and, believe me, I have seen all of this put to the test over the past ten days ever since my wife’s recovery from foot surgery meant me taking on full responsibility of tending to the needs of our two young boys. Talk about exhausting!

Anyway, Lillie proffered five questions to five people she tagged giving us the option to answer some or all of them. I couldn’t resist, therefore I chose to answer each one.

How do you achieve balance in your life?
Prayer! I don’t take the responsibility of carrying my load lightly as I simply cannot do this all by myself. Asking God’s help and guidance as the day begins (and throughout for that matter) tends to lift even the heaviest burden.

What is your biggest challenge in balancing your life?
Making sure that my wife and our sons do not lose the time that they need to have with me (and I with them). Sometimes that means turning down a project or telling someone that I am currently not available. Sure, it has cost me financially on occasion, but as much as I like my work there are times when I simply say, “enough.” I am certain when our children our grown that their most memorable times with me will not be when they saw me sitting in my Lazy Boy plunking on the keys of my laptop!

What are your priorities?
God, family, church, work, personal needs.

How have your priorities changed over time and why?
My wife and I married later in life and our children came to us by means of adoption. Before we met, both of us were satisfied with our jobs and we enjoyed spending time with friends. Today, our immediate family and my work takes up most of our time with weekends reserved for family time and for church services.

What advice can you share to help all of us balance our own lives?
Log off. Seriously, even though there are days when my computer is on constantly, I will put it on hibernate to take a walk, hang out with my wife, call a friend, help our children with a special project, etc. Sometimes deadlines are set in stone making it impossible to stop what you are doing. However, if your life is constantly driven by inflexible deadlines, then why is that?

Feel free to create your own meme based on this theme and link back to Lillie’s blog entry or simply hit the reply button here to share your comments.

Thank you, Lillie.