Radical Womanhood

Caribbean Distractions

I forgot to post that I am out of the country and this blog is taking a vacation. My apologies for the lengthy silence, especially in clearing comments. I always appreciate hearing from everyone, so I am sorry for not letting you know I'm on travel. I've been filming on location in the Caribbean, so both I and this blog are taking a little break. Back in two weeks! 

Blogging Schedule

Hi, friends! Happy Monday to you. Through this brief post, I want to update you on what has become painfully obvious: I am not able to churn out the posts for this blog on the schedule that I once did in the past. Life has become too full -- as it has for all of us! Back when I started this blog in 2005, we didn't have as much to read online. Now there is a deluge of material available online. But I am grateful that you all remain interested in what appears on Radical Womanhood. I will continue to maintain this blog, Lord willing, but the posts will slow down to an average of once a week. According to my visitor stats, five times as many readers get an RSS feed than visit the website directly, so it appears that most of you will be alerted whenever I am able to add new material. 

May I also ask for your prayers? The production schedule at Citygate Films is heating up, I am considering another book project, and I'd like to participate in more ministries with my new church. I will post those details in the future when appropriate. But put simply, there are more opportunities before me than I have time to tackle, especially tackle well. So if the Lord brings me to mind, please pray for wisdom and strength to be faithful and productive. I also appreciate any feedback you have, so leave your comments!

Jet Lag=Blog Lag

If you have recently visited this blog and wondered where the new posts are, you can be sure they are in my head as I am boarding an airplane somewhere. My travel schedule has been crazy lately and my poor body clock has no idea where I am. So I am grateful for your patience as I have posted fewer and fewer items here. 

In light of this, I'd also like to know how you are currently consuming your social media. I have to confess that I am getting further and further behind in my own blog reading and am dependent on alerts through services like Facebook and Twitter to know what's new. Yet, I don't want to see my learning reduced to 140-character bleats. So I am intentionally spending more time with in-depth articles, documentaries, and books--and hoping I'm not missing too much in the blogosphere.

What about you? How do you receive your news? Should I update Radical Womanhood's readers through a Twitter or Facebook notice, in addition to RSS feeds? (I have noticed that four times as many readers access Radical Womanhood through RSS feeds than visit the site directly.) 

More importantly, in an age of information overload, how are you managing your time and input? I look forward to hearing and learning from you!

What Do You Want to Talk About?

So ... it's been five years of me chatting away in cyberspace. Can you believe it? 

Yep, five years ago this summer I started the Very Infrequent Blog on my website. It wasn't really much of a blog. I think I would post every month or so. At best. I did it because my friend, Scott Anderson, at Desiring God told me I should blog. (Shout out to you, Scott!) I'm pretty sure I didn't even know what a blog was back then. Then I got really going on Typepad a year later. 

Now I have an archive of musings stretching back four years here on Radical Womanhood/ Solofemininity. (Yep, still too lazy to migrate that URL to a matchy-matchy name and link). 

I'm amazed that after five years, anyone still visits this blog. But thousands of you do. Amazing! Thank you very much. Your comments are meaningful and encouraging.

Looking ahead, I do have some ideas for future blog posts, but I'd really like to hear from you. So over this next week, would you take the time to introduce yourself and why you read Radical Womanhood? I'd like to know more about you as readers, why you visit, and what you'd like to discuss in the future. I suspect the readership has really changed over five years and if so, I'd like to know more about you. (Even you lurking male readers!)

Blog Problems Today

No, it's not your computer. My hosting site, Typepad, is experiencing problems today. So if everything looks odd to you, just scroll down. Eventually you will find the missing material in odd places. My apologies. I'm trying to get it fixed, but until then it's going to be a bad hair day for this blog.

Welcome to Radical Womanhood

It's a new year, so it's time for a new name and look for this blog. Introducing ... the Radical Womanhood blog. Because being a biblical woman in a modern world is a radical act.

Now I get to be just like one of my favorite bloggers, Justin Taylor, whose blog name is different from his blog URL. I'm not migrating my blog address right now, just changing the name from Solo Femininity to Radical Womanhood.

This new blog name also references the title for my forthcoming book--Radical Womanhood: Lures, Lies, and True Liberation, which will (Lord willing!) be released by Moody Publishers this coming October. I'm in the homestretch of writing, so if you think to pray for me and this project, I would GREATLY appreciate it. Not that I have ever run a marathon or have any intentions of doing so, but to me this feels like the last leg in a marathon.

I also have the pleasure of announcing that Jane Connolly of Charlotte, NC, won the title contest. The team at Moody blended one of their suggested titles with hers to come up with the final title. Thanks to all who submitted title ideas! I much appreciated your ideas and support. And Jane, a little thank you will be headed your way shortly.

Pink or Blue?

I'm on a writing deadline, so I don't have time to write a new entry for our current series. However, in my research for this article, I came across an interesting point about color and gender in an article published last month in the New York Times magazine:

Girls’ obsession with that color [pink] may seem like something they’re born with, like the ability to breathe or talk on the phone for hours on end. But according to Jo Paoletti, an associate professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, it ain’t so. When colors were first introduced to the nursery in the early part of the 20th century, pink was considered the more masculine hue, a pastel version of red. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy and faithfulness, was thought to be dainty. Why or when that switched is not clear, but as late as the 1930s a significant percentage of adults in one national survey held to that split. Perhaps that’s why so many early Disney heroines — Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Wendy, Alice-in-Wonderland — are swathed in varying shades of azure. (Purple, incidentally, may be the next color to swap teams: once the realm of kings and N.F.L. players, it is fast becoming the bolder girl’s version of pink.)

So it seems my new blog color is historically feminine after all. Rock on.

New Look! Same Great Content!

Now it's my turn to trot out those tired marketing clichés: "New Look! Same Great Content! Perfect for the Whole Family! Try All Three Great Flavors!"

This blog was screaming for a makeover. Hope you enjoy it. It's still a template, so you're not getting anything original. But at least there are a few new photos and a different color scheme.

It's too early for spring cleaning, but I'm on a roll. Next up: the closet. Or maybe my purse...

New Purse, New Policy

A few months ago, I purchased a new purse. I should have been duly warned because this one came with its own light. Take it from me, if your purse is cavernous enough to require a light to find what's residing on the bottom, it is just too big! Another indicator that a purse is outsized: your mobile phone always goes to voicemail before you can get your hands on it to answer. But the real litmus test is "the big dig." If you have to disgorge the contents of your purse on your lap, the restaurant table, or the adjoining car seat just to find a pack of gum, you need a better system.

I am waiting for purse manufacturers to recognize that we need a feminine toolbox, not a soft-sided pouch. We need compartments with strong dividers to organize keys, multiple lipsticks, mobile phone, PDA, iPod, digital camera, sunglasses, wallet, pain reliever, mints/gum, tissues, feminine products, and other necessities (such as Shout-Wipes for the spill-prone). That's just the stuff a single woman hauls around. When you get married, you need compartments for the "hey, honey, can you put this in your purse for me" items. Then when you have kids, you have to add a plastic-lined, hazardous waste compartment for all the soiled and half-used items your children hand you--"here, Mommy."

But, alas, I have yet to find such a stylish and useful item. So today I capitulated and purchased another purse that at least allows me to see the contents without a miner's helmet.

My purse overhaul is symbolic of a larger life issue. Like my purse, my life is full of good intentions, randomly packed. Lots of wonderful and necessary things are found in there, but it's too crowded. It's time to pare down.

In recent months, I've been seeking the advice of many people close to me (mentors, pastors, accountability partners, and family) about my schedule and priorities. As the old saying goes, the enemy of the best is the good. Which means you can be ineffective while doing lots of good things. This blog is a good thing. But it takes a lot of time, some of which may be better invested in the people God has already put in my life. A few months ago, I announced I was cutting down my blog entries to two to three entries a week, on average.

Now I must eliminate moderating comments.

Please understand I still want to hear from you because your feedback is valuable--it may initiate a clarification or be the genesis of a future blog post. Though I do read every email and every comment that is submitted, I simply don't have the time to respond to most emails or to moderate the comments in a timely way. So please use the comment function to reply (that way I know which topic you are referring to), but note that comments will no longer be published.

When I first began this blog, I had the idealistic notion it would save time. I would often receive variations of the same question, so I thought if I answered it publicly on a blog, it would be the most efficient method for everyone. That, however, led to more email and more questions. I'm honored to be asked to advise other women, but most of the time I'm not the best person to help because I'm too removed. The best counsel comes from those who can observe your life (pastors, parents, mentors, and close friends), people who can understand more fully the context of a situation. So though I have to institute these changes, I still hope this corner of cyberspace will continue to be a place of Godward encouragement.

Thanks for reading!

A Warnie Award!

I recently discovered that I am a recipient of one of the international Warnie Awards for blogging. Adrian Warnock has assigned a "clutch of awards" to several bloggers and I am more than delighted to be among them.

I had my accceptance speech all ready to go ("I'd like to to thank the Warnie Academy, my parents, all 3800 members of my church, and every person in the world with access to the Internet...), but then I was contacted by the Warnie audit team, who suspected the awards had been influenced by vote buying. To wit, one recent dinner in Gaithersburg. The photographic evidence has now been recovered.

The audit team has ruled that I may keep the award, but I have to stand mutely in the back of the group as we all receive our awards. No speech for me. But that doesn't prevent me from wildly gesturing and pointing out some of my favorite posts on the other Warnie Award winners:

- "When Lancelot Comes Riding, Part 2" on the Rebelution--or how to be gracious when men act like gentlemen.

- "Why Have You Chosen this Lot for Me?" from the Finding God in My Difficult Marriage series on the Married Life Blog.

- "What Do We Wear to Worship God?" from Worship Matters. Though addressed to the musicians and vocalists, this is an insightful post for everyone in church.

- "Retreat Meditation" from the five15 blog, an exceedingly useful outline of how to meditate on Scripture.

- "Modesty on Your Wedding Day" from Josh Harris' blog--I especially appreciated his gracious closing comments about avoiding self-righteousness on this topic.

- "More on the Oppression of Women" from the Jollyblogger, who wisely points to our innate sinfulness, rather than any social structure, as the reason for any real oppression women experience.

Congratulations to all the winners! And thank you, Adrian.