When I forget to say thanks

Nothing hurts worse than ingratitude. God loves a thankful heart, and it is with regret that I must acknowledge my own failure to make appropriate expressions of my gratitude for all His many gifts.

Chief among God's grace toward me has been the "angels unawares" sent my way, including Smitty -- who deserves more far more praise than he gets -- and those of my readers who have hit my tip jar. When I first started getting tip-jar hits, I scrupulously replied with thank-you e-mails, and those who included their phone numbers on the PayPal form could expect a phone call.

More recently, however -- especially since the Charles Johnson affair -- things have piled up horribly here. My e-mail inbox constantly overflows, and then there has been the travel: The shoe-leather trips to D.C. to cover IG-Gate, Right Online conference, the 9/12 March, the Kentucky trip, NY23 and the Orlando trip for the last stop of the Tea Party Express.

Of the many things that have been neglected and back-burnered during this time, the one thing I should not have shunted aside was my obligation to say thank-you to everyone who, by their regular readership and tip-jar contributions, have helped make all this possible. And today I got an e-mail that included a pointed P.S.:

I still haven't gotten an acknowledgment for a $40 tip jar hit some months back.

Mea culpa. I like to say, "Hit the tip jar, your ungrateful bastards," but it appears that I have been the ungrateful bastard.

There are no accidents. I probably don't read a single-digit percent of the e-mail that comes into my inbox, but I read that one. My priorities have evidently been misplaced, and I take this e-mail as God's way of tapping me on the shoulder and telling me to pay attention to duties I have too long neglected.

The e-mailer is also right about the main point of his message: The center column is too narrow.

Among the duties I've neglected is trying to get this operation shaped up format-wise. Several people -- including Jimmie Bise and Cynthia Yockey -- have suggested I need to switch to a WordPress format. But I put it off because I hate dealing with that kind of housekeeping stuff.

No more. In the next few weeks, I'm going to do a WordPress changeover, and hope to have it complete it by New Year's Day. And if you like this idea . . .

Well, hit the tip jar of a grateful bastard. Thanks for tapping me on the shoulder, God.