Reluctantly crouched at the starting line

My practical side has won out. I now have a blog. I have conflicted feelings about blogging. (I will spare you a list of my reservations--it seems like kind of a depressing way to launch a blog. Besides, my friend Gina articulates this ambivalence better than I can, here and here.) After weeks of intense deliberation and debate about whether to start a blog or not (Greg: "You want to discuss this again? I thought you already settled the matter."), I have decided to try out a blog for one year.

I believe that it is not so much our experiences that make us who we are, but the stories we tell about our experiences. We cannot always control what happens in life, but we can control how we react to it and the story it becomes. Blogging (like journaling, telling anecdotes, scrapbooking, joining Facebook, letter writing, making videos, etc.) is a way of creating a narrative of our lives. Greg and I need a better narrative for this last twelve months in Ohio. For various reasons, life has felt difficult lately. And I don't want Mary growing up with the "Life Sucked When You Were a Baby" narrative or David with the "We Liked You More Before You Turned Two and a Half" story. Those are clearly exaggerations--but sometimes I worry that we overlook too much of the good. And the reality is that our life is good--really good! God has blessed us tremendously, and our life is full of smiles and laughter. I hope to look back and remember this year as challenging, special, and wonderful.

With all that said, I must admit that it wasn't my philosophical musings on narrative that led me to blogging. I am starting a blog because it is just plain practical. I have friends and family all over the world with whom I love to keep in touch--which includes sharing pictures of my kids. I also think it's important to record some kind of family history, as well as keep a personal journal. Though imperfect, a blog is a kill-several-birds-with-one-stone approach. I will always think a personal email or phone call infinitely preferable to a blog post or comment. A blog (or any medium) can never have enough pictures of my kids to satisfy their grandparents. It will probably be too Alisa-centered to be a fair portrait of our family, and I will rightly self-censor much more than I would in a private journal. But a blog is a fair compromise--especially since I wasn't accomplishing much of anything before (as you who are still waiting for an email response or those promised pictures can attest). Blogging serves as a way of multitasking, and as a mom with an active toddler and a demanding baby, multitasking is the order of the day.

As I said, the practical part of my nature has carried the day, and so, not without misgivings, I start this blog. Who knows. Maybe I'll be converted.

Here's to the next twelve months. Cheers!