First Blog Entry Ever!

August 1, 2010


How do I introduce myself?   

I'm tempted to say, first, I am a writer.  That's probably the New Yorker in me, defining myself by my profession and my avocation.  But that's the most comfortable way for me to introduce myself, so I'll stick with that choice.  I don't know what this introduction says about me.  I leave that to you to decide.

To continue:

I am a daughter.  I am a sister.  I am an aunt.  As you can guess from those last three, I am a woman.   
I am a feminist and a humanist.  I am a mulatta.  I am a polytheist.  (I created my own religion, but I'm not particularly religious.)
I am a progressive (which is more left wing than a liberal, but less leftist than a radical). 
I am a lover of books and stories in general.  (I keep reversing those last two bullet points.  I can't decide which is more me, or which says more about me.) 
I am a talker.  I talk and talk and talk.  I love to talk.  To anyone.  And I love to write.  Writing is a lot like talking.

That seems to me to be a full circle - starting with writer and ending with writing.  This is a brief description of who I am.  There is more to me.  There are so many things that make up the fabric of my life: my family, my work, my friends, my home, my hobbies, my responsibilities, my dreams.  I can expand on that list, but I can't seem to boil it down any further.  Perhaps I could just say, family, books, work.  It is clear from the list above, I consider them essential to who I am.  But I consider my political perspective extremely important in introducing myself to new people and so I have to include the descriptor progressive.

Note:  I hate the word hobbies.  I was tempted to write "my loves," "likes," and/or "activities," but hobbies seemed slightly more specific.  I like to think the connotations of that one word include the core meanings of the other three. I have  a lot of hobbies.  Reading and writing are first among these, but I am also a lover of theater and movies.  I enjoy camping, swimming, skiing, and -- when my bad knee allows, hiking.  I am an avid photographer -- of the people and places I find beautiful.  Telling you my hobbies are important is another way of telling you know who I am.  The relative importance to me of these activities, as well as the degree to which I find each satisfying, varies widely.  Eg. I like to knit, crochet, macrame, but not to any great degree and therefore I rarely knit, crochet, or macrame.  However, I prefer all three activities to cooking, which is a chore I am required to do almost every day.  When I say hobbies make up much of the fabric of my life, I have this graduated scale in my mind.  Am I a cook?  Of course.  It's a necessity.  But is that part of how I see myself, or how I want others to see me?  Not particularly. 

By claiming ownership of a trait, an ability, a like or dislike, or even pleasure in an activity, I define myself.  How would you introduce yourself?