The Attempt

Here is my outstretched hand.  My effort at bringing my brain back from the brink... of injury, of motherhood, of the stress of life, of isolation.  There have been so many pulls and prods and inspirations of late to try something new and daring.  I don't know if a blog could ever be considered daring, but it is an attempt.

My idea is to share ideas.  To have conversations about them.  To share things (books, articles, talks, other blog posts) that have made you think.  To have somewhere to feel and use our intelligence.  I want to make and enrich friendships taking into account the wisdom each person has attained.  There are so many places for talents and hobbies, I wanted to have a place for thoughts.  

My place in life has left me with fewer original thoughts about just about everything then ever before.  What few things I encounter in my day that make me pause and think, become lost in the many mundane and practical conversations I have to have with my husband, the only other adult I'm likely to have any interaction with during the day.  When an idea is strong enough to break through the mundane, it tends to become a kind of projectile which I throw in my husband's direction.  Seldom at the end of a long day, do deep, thoughtful conversations interest him, though he often humors me.

I also wanted a place that would move at my pace. Someplace where trains of thought can be interrupted and revisited hours later.  Someplace with spell check.  I used to be quite the active debater and just about everyone predicted I would become a lawyer.  I've since come to understand that was a nice thing to say to someone who was basically a mouthy teenager.  I was also technically smart...  good grades and test scores, awards and honors.  I looked good on paper, but it has been years since I have even been "looked" at on paper, and there are no grades or honors in this part of my life.  So it has to be about something else now.  Maybe I don't want to "look" intelligent as much as I really just want to "be" intelligent, and like so many lessons that come with age, I have realized that the majority of intelligence to be found in this world is found in other people.

So won't you join me.  Won't you help me be inspired by the things that inspire you.  Won't you share your experiences and insight so that I can benefit from more than just the lessons that come to me in my life?  Can we stand proudly together and say in effect that we are women who do (raise children, have careers, run households, serve others, read, and write, and create) but we are also women who think?