Field Notes
It is possible that you, like me, use a blog reader (I use Google reader) to track your "daily feeds." This means I do not visit every blog I follow every day. In fact, I rarely visit most blogs directly.
This habit causes me to miss out on two things: when people make comments on other's blogs and when bloggers opt to change the theme and feel of their blog, like Nora's new look which I stumbled upon recently. Great choice...very Africa!
So, unless you are a direct visitor, you are not seeing today's new look. I have been experimenting with a number of themes for about a year and I think I've finally found the one that is going to stick: Field Notes.
When we were thinking about SouthField as a potential church name, I started to play with it. I think a good name should be playful. Fun should flow from it.
As I played with our potential name, I looked up the term field notes. The "authorities" at Wikipedia say, "Fieldnotes refer to various notes recorded by social scientists during or after their observation of a specific phenomena they are studying." Sounds like a blog. Observations...sometimes insightful, sometimes random, sometimes funny, sometimes serious...notes on what's happening in the field...the field of life.
Add to this that I am enamored with Louis and Clark. If you've never read Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, get a copy and get reading. It's been one of the best reads of my life. Meriwether Lewis amazed me in so many ways. I was blown away by his discipline to keep a detailed record of his findings as they traveled west, his field notes. The banner as well as the image includes a sampling of his work.
On Sunday the blog will turn three. The first post happened on October 12, 2005. Imagine if you could have a quarter for every typo in those three years! While I've never been great at keeping a journal, or doing much of anything as consistently as I would like, this set of field notes has brought a level of consistency and pleasure I really did not think I could possibly experience.
Thanks to all of you who have made the journey so enjoyable.
