Everything Is Connected...

My first ever blog post. Welcome, none and all!

Mixed feelings herald my entry to the blogosphere. Regret for not having made said entry sooner, as Coc has been suggesting for months whenever I make a rant (often prompted by the 'Women' page of The Guardian G2 or some similarly depressing exponent of the state of gender identity/relations); excitement at having another procrastination toy - oops, I mean 'communication outlet' - and at knowing there will be no end of subject matter upon which to rant to the wider world; something like sadness in this knowledge, because it reinforces how far we need to go to make the world better for everyone in it; and a kind of gritted determination to make betterness happen. And as the world is shaped by what we do and say and think, this blog is something of a contribution. Very slight, very partial, very biased, but very Me - which is, after all, all I have.

I'm also at a point in my life where threads are starting to weave together into a possible future visible beyond the next year or so. I turn 30 in April, have a permanent home for the first time since before I was 8, am about to start a PhD, and am in a nourishing, generative, accepting, endlessly loving and exciting relationship, after a youth of online dating misadventures and affairettes with Russian church singers. I've finally stopped calling myself 'culturally Catholic', despite having been atheist since I left school, because I've realised that it's okay to discard the aspects of my identity I find burdensome and that 'being' or 'not being' is something I have the power to shape for myself every time I open my mouth. So I'm coming to terms with things I didn't even know were there to come to terms with, and love being so aware of the constant changing and growing. Actively learning to accept and enjoy myself and the world - that's where I'm at. And It Is Good.

So the blog, I think, is a way to negotiate acceptance of myself in the world. Turning it outwards, and relating that to the innards, constantly and iteratively. Well... We'll see where this all goes. I find the myriad ways in which we are all connected simultaneously mundane and miraculous - it seems such an obvious truth to me (indeed the only 'truth' I'd willingly adhere to) but one which can never be taken for granted, for to do so may be to lose sight of the urgency with which we need to change the world. Which we can do, friends. Oh yes.

Jeez, this blogging is exhausing. I realise I've explained nothing of the Scowling Feminist and her origin, but I'll save that for next time. For now, I'm to a beer and the rest of my Easter chocolate.

Jolly Bank Holiday!