‘A Blog By Any Other Name’ / Mare's Musings

I find it interesting how people say ‘Your name suits you so well’ or ‘ I couldn’t imagine you with another name’. I mean think about, if your name has been Melissa for 25 years and suddenly you changed it to Renee, it would take people some getting used to and people would probably struggle with seeing you as a ‘Renee’ instead of a Melissa and say things like ‘Renee just doesn’t suit you, you are such a Melissa’.

But what if you had always been ‘Renee’ but for some unknown reason, always went by ‘Melissa’, which, is in fact, your middle name. You only seem like a ‘Melissa’ because people have only ever known you as ‘Melissa’. It doesn’t really matter what your name is, people can’t imagine you as some other name because you’ve always been Your name. I always wanted to call my first born daughter Kiralee but for reasons I won’t go into, she became Kylie and people always say it suits her so well and they can’t imagine her being anything else, but, if I had had my way and called her Kiralee, then they would be saying the same thing about that name. You get my drift? No? Well, never mind, I tend to have these rambling, incoherent thoughts from time to time.

The cover of Mum's Major Work 

I only mention names because of the issue of naming this Blog. I’ve thought about starting a blog for quite awhile now and the name that always came to mind was ‘People Colour My Life’ because that is the name my mother gave to her Major Work for her degree in Communication, a collection of stories, poems and anecdotes based on her observations of people she encountered throughout her life and as I wanted to post some of her stories on the site, it seemed like an appropriate and fitting name and in some ways a tribute to Mum.

But when it came to actually choosing the name when I started to build the Blog, I hesitated and thought of a whole lot of other names that I could possibly call it such as, ‘I Was Just Thinking’ (not very original), or, ‘Merrion’s Ministrations’ (Hmmmmm). Then I chewed over ‘Mare’s Musings’ or ‘The Musings of Mare’. I toyed with ‘The Mare of St Andrews’ (my nickname is Mare and I live in St Andrews), and ‘Much Ado About Everything’ (I’m sure Shakespeare won’t turn in his grave at my poetic licence). I tried on ‘What Are The Chances’ (said in a real nasally, high pitched kinda way) and ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Insanity’ was definitely on the list (I did raise 5 children after all), and in the running was ‘Fair Dinkum!’ (I once knew someone who used to call me Fair Dinkum because I said it so often. Still Do) and so it went on.

But I kept coming back to ‘People Colour my Life’ because, well, that’s what I’d always thought I’d call a Blog if I ever had one and I just couldn’t imagine it being any other name. I’d grown used to thinking about my blog as that name and as much as I tried, I couldn’t shake the feeling that nothing else would suit quite as well. So I stuck with  ‘People Colour My Life’ with The Musings of Mare tacked on for the description thanks to my daughter Kylie’s suggestion.

So maybe my opening observations aren’t strictly correct, because you know, I really can’t imagine this Blog by any other name. Thanks Mum!

Cheers

Mare

'To Blog or Not to Blog'... (My First Post) / Mare's Musings

I’ve always liked to write. I’m not very good at it but I’ve always enjoyed putting my thoughts and ideas down on paper. As a teenager I used to write poems and stories about all sorts of things. I’ve kept a Diary of sorts on and off over the years and I’ve always felt more comfortable expressing myself through the written word. In later years I’ve written a couple of songs, mostly for my church on a particular topic but my forte seems to be writing funny songs about people for milestone birthdays, farewells, anniversaries etc., I really enjoy this and have a lot of fun and laughs putting something clever together using a popular tune and sharing insights into the person through the words.

My Mother was always writing a new story about something. She taught Creative Writing at her local Community College and she also held a degree in Communication at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College. She was a great observer of life and a lot of her stories are written about actual people and incidents. She travelled a lot on Public Transport and spent a good deal of time in hospitals and doctors surgeries due to ill health and always came back with a tale to tell that would inevitably end up becoming a story. Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit her ability to pen a good story, but my daughter did and has her own quite successful Blog.

So what has that got to do with anything, you ask? Well, I must confess that I’ve always had a bit of an unflattering opinion of why people blog, namely that they are mostly opinionated, egotistical, narcissistic, trumpet blowing, pontificating, blowhards who like the sound of their own keyboard clicking’, not to put too fine a point on it.

Now hang on, before you go screaming obscenities at your computer screen at this insult to bloggers everywhere, just hear me out. While there definitely are some of the aforementioned bloggers around, the more I contemplated and investigated the more I came to the conclusion that the majority of people that Blog just like to write, to talk, to communicate, to share, to engage with others, to invite reflection, to have an outlet for their creativity, and connect with people and events and happenings that make up their life.

Before I wrote this post I googled ‘Why do People Blog’. Lots of sites came up entitled ‘ 9 Reasons Why People Blog’ ‘ 15 Reasons Why People Blog’ ‘5 Reasons Why You Should Blog’ ‘The Psychology of Blogging’ just to mention a few. I read through some of the reasons but most of them didn’t really ring true for me except two that struck a chord 1. To tap into and satisfy my creative side and 2. To create a record. 

I especially want to share some of my Mum’s writings and share a bit of family history while maybe meeting some new people and learning some new things.

So, here I go, wading my way into the world of blogging and quite looking forward to the journey.

Cheers,

Mare