What's in a name...

My iTunes were happily running on "shuffle" while I tried to come up with a blog name, then one of my favorite songs came on - about a couple walking along the shore, then hearing the music from an open window, dancing together. (Lennie Gallant - "The Open Window") I've always liked that song because I love that image of open windows. When you take a walk in the spring or summer, you walk by houses and for a moment you hear the snippets of the real lives of the people inside - laughter, quarrels, piano practice, stereos... And if you're inside the open window, you still hear the rest of the world - children outside playing (inventing outrageous rules for whatever game they are creating!), sounds of yard work and carpentry, dogs barking...

Open windows give a snippet of real life - not the nice, neat "Disney-ized" life you'd get if you were invited over. Open windows don't reduce life to clean floors, and tidy living rooms. It's the good, the bad, the trivial - -the things that really make up our lives. That's why I like blogs. They're like open windows.

Oh, and yes, you're right, the blog name and the blog URL don't match; its a reference to why I'm finally doing a blog...

I decided to start blogging earlier this year. I was on an airplane flying back up from Atlanta, having just gone to the funeral of a childhood friend, Scotte Hodel - my "extra big brother". Scotte had kept a lot of us old hometown friends close not just with him, but with each other, simply because of his weekly blogs and (pre-blog) family newsletters. It made me realize just how much closeness and friendship comes from knowing the little ordinary things that mark people's lives. I still read Scotte's blog because it makes me still feel like he's there; I just wish I could have a few more conversations with him. His post count on the blog ended at 999 - I sometimes wonder, what would his 1000th post be if he could send it from Heaven. It might be a really bad pun, some tech advice, an amazing insight of faith, or just a word about the latest goings on at home. Whatever it would be about it would be worth reading.

Janet