goal setting

Thank goodness for goals...
I was reviewing lists recently -- I love lists -- and noticed that I had stated that I would post a blog this year.

First hurdle: what to call my blog?
Southern Exposure? That's what I called my Web site (it has never been uploaded)
Southern Belle? I'm getting too old to be a belle.
Southern Mama? I do enjoy being a Mom but I'm not a Mama

Instead, I have opted for Jolie laide for a number of reasons:
1. It’s a French term
2. We all know someone who could be described as such
3. The main reason: I tend to be drawn to works and things that could be described aptly as Jolie laide. Things that exist outside the classical rigours of symmetry and proportion prescribed as beauty, thereby making them all the more compelling.

In my mind, the term even applies to literature. One of my favourite novels is the "Life of Pi." I have only been able to read this work once, even though I loved it. With its ending and the denouement, I am unable to read the lifeboat scenes again. It was horrific visualizing the lifeboat with animals let alone with human counterparts. Beautiful, but certainly not of classic proportions. But I digress already.

Instead, I plan to blog brief thoughts with no attempt to write pretty prose, but rather create a forum for book discussion and musings...