Recently, Scott from Journey to Surrender laid out the philosophy for his blog in exactly ten words, and then challenged me to do the same for my blog (I guess itâs like a Blog Thing thatâs going around). Â I really liked Scottâs ten-word summary, and decided that it would be a productive exercise for me as well. I didnât realize, though, just how difficult it would be.
Alas, a few sleepless nights ago, I came up with something. Here it is:
Marriage is both sublime and mundane. We must be honest.
Okay, that is not the most elegant thing I have ever written. But in a nutshell, thatâs the message Iâm trying to get across through Project M.
While the end-result of this exercise wasnât entirely satisfying, the process itself was still useful and enabled me to see a couple of things:
I am more interested, in Project M, in exploring the ways we talk about and think about marriage (and romance and sex and the like) than how we enact it. . . because how we think about it necessarily influences the way we enact it. Iâm interested in getting behind our actions to the deep-seated assumptions and beliefs that influence what we do.
While numerous admirable blogs are devoted to helping people achieve better marriages, Iâm more interested in exploring what goes on inside our brains when it comes to marriage. I want to examine what we mean by âmarriage,â and how our stories can deceive or enlighten; how our advice can hinder or empower.
Hence the emphasis, in my ten-word philosophy, on being honest. It’s about what we say and don’t say. Iâm interested in the stories we share with one another, the counsel that we offer and accept, the facets of our relationships that we allow others to see. I believe that we must share all truths â the frightening, the comical, the heartwarming, the frustrating, the sublime, the banal — in order to really learn and grow.
Thanks, Scott, for the interesting challenge!
How would you sum up your blog’s philosophy? How about your philosophy of marriage?
Photo courtesy of Phil H.