WARTS and all

I like acronyms. Some people think they’re cutesy; I think they’re creative. Of course, I can’t think of any good ones right now, other than NEENER (National Endowment for Endless, Needless, and Everlasting Research, from Jim Rule’s Underwear Song). Oh wait—there’s SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Association), the does-not-rhyme-with-NASA PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture), CAFO (confined animal feeding operation), PULSE (Pittsburgh Urban Leadership Service Experience), and lots, lots more. And while it’s not an acronym, I’ve loved the saying, “Don’t assume. It makes an ASS out of U and ME” since I first heard it. I like to think of it as a collaboration between Will Short and Steven Colbert. Back to acronyms--what’s your personal favorite?

I didn’t think too seriously about a name for a blog. Reinford Ramblings was my second choice, but it seemed a lame attempt to imitate/flatter the alliteration and theme of The Paris Project (the blog I read most often, http://www.jenellparis.blogspot.com/).

I don’t have any actual warts, but I still get acne, and I have large moles—ignoble bumps that beg to be worried, as if rubbing them will raise their status to something worthy of attention, or alternately, make them disappear altogether. I have mind warts, too—blips on the blank screen that I keep coming back to rub, analyze, press for meaning. Usually these random thoughts are just that, but every so often an irritating protrusion produces a pearl.

I don’t anticipate my blog to have mass appeal; those who already know and love me are my likely readers. They are the people I still try to impress, the ones whose approval I crave. Of course, they are also the ones who know the me behind the me I try to project, the ones who see me grouchy, self-absorbed, sputtering. Can I trust that they, and God, will love me warts and all?

What are WARTS? you decide.

• White Anabaptist Radical Thinker, Sometimes
• Weird angst, random terrors, stargazing
• Worldwide Advocates for the Reduction of Television Stations
• Whoops! Already read that story!
• Weather Activated Radar Tracking System
• Wonderings, Amusements, Reflections, Thoughts, Soliloquies
  
  

In the Beginning

I’m starting a blog. I’m not on facebook, I don’t have a myspace page, but even before getting DSL, I’ve had a hankering to connect in the technosphere. People blog for many reasons; since I try to be a purpose-driven person (no thanks to Rick Warren, thank you very much), I feel the need to justify bogging. Why not call someone on the phone if I’m feeling lonely? Why not journal on paper if I’m trying to sort out what I think about something, or need to remember a significant event or insight? I do those things, occasionally, and will continue to. But blogging is different.

I’ve never belonged to gym or fitness center, and though I won’t put it on the list of “never wills” (since too many never wills have come to pass and turned out to be quite enjoyable), I don’t think paying to exercise in a public setting is something that will happen in the near future. But I’m committing myself to a different kind of fitness regimen—brain fitness, if you will. I’m going to blog for my health, to exercise the muscles that have been turning to putty in recent years. I may decide after a trial period that I prefer my fitness to be sporadic, spontaneous, and solitary, as has been the case for whatever aerobic activity I engage in. And my blogging will have time limits—no marathon workouts for me, just half-hour sessions squeezed in between supper and bedtime. I may not even work all the major muscle groups in one session, so my blog entries may have weak conclusions or no conclusions at all. But I like to think that, over the course of time, some strengths will emerge, some progress, some themes that will help me remember why I love life. After all, isn’t that the point of exercise?