What is Tinkering?

Once you decide to start a blog, the next decision is what it will be about.  (I guess ideally those decisions might happen in the reverse order, actually.)  At any rate, I’m going to lay out some parameters here on what to expect in this space.

Things This Blog Is Not

1. A chronicle of my family life. Though parenting, marriage, in-laws and other fascinating topics will undoubtedly come up in the course of the conversation, this is not where you will find out about my toddler’s new tooth or what we did last weekend.
2. A blog about politics. I’m as interested in current events as the next gal. I’m also interested in democracy, and America, and how our government works.  (In fact, I’m currently kind of obsessed with The West Wing.) And I suppose I may comment on these things from time to time.  But I will mostly leave this sphere to the many, many people who know more about it than I do.
3. An attempt to demonstrate that I’m hip or funny. I’m not. And pretending or trying to prove that I am just makes me anxious.

(If anyone is in doubt about the veracity of this claim to squareness, consider the aforementioned interest in The West Wing. Not only am I spending a lot of time watching an off-the-air TV show about politics, I’m doing it on my computer because we don’t have a TV. And until recently we were getting the DVDs from the public library.  Also, it’s a wild night if we watch two episodes instead of one and stay up past ten o’clock. Can I stop now?)

Things This Blog Is

1. A place to write about writing. This intimidated me at first. I have no plan to pontificate upon the proper use of the gerund.  Nor will I write mind-blowing posts about the creative use of metaphor in grant applications. I don’t claim a lot of expertise as a writer at this point. But I’m interested in learning and thinking about writing, and I’m looking forward to passing along what I find.
2. A forum for chewing on some of life’s persistent questions. (Ahem. That was a nod to NPR’s Prairie Home Companion, in case additional evidence was needed for #3 above.) I’m a woman, a wife, a mom. I’m smart and highly educated and ambitious. I’m happy with my job, but not entirely satisfied with my career.  I constantly find myself nudging at the edges of big issues: work/life balance, feminism, equality in marriage, how to be a role model for my daughter, and what I really want to be when I grow up.  Most of my friends think about these issues too, so I hope they’ll be interesting and relevant and not just an exercise in navel-gazing.