The mandatory introductory session

Hi everybody!  Welcome to our little adventure in blogging.  We'll see where this goes.

We're two single early-career academics. We're from two different traditions of protestant Christianity.  We are both, to varying degrees, musicians. 

Academia is isolating, being single in a couples' world is isolating.  As two independent, intelligent women, we've periodically felt isolated in our churches as well.  This blog emerged out of our own frustration at that isolation.  It is an attempt to cut through that fog, to share our heartbreaks, anger, and joy with each other and with you. We do plenty of serious, reasoned writing in our day jobs; what's here is intentionally casual.  Respectful, kind dialogue is welcome; dismissive or rude comments are not, and will be ruthlessly spiked.

We like Cole Porter, and the name is a reference to his song "Begin the Beguine."  But the beguines were lay women who desired to live a holy life in the midst of growing urbanization in the late twelfth century.  By the thirteenth century, communities of women who were dedicated to prayer, contemplation, and work in the world were being established throughout western Europe, particularly in the Low Countries.  The women lived in small individual houses which together made up the béguinage.