Full disclosure

Over at Fr. Jake's place, the good man has commented on one of Episcopal Cafe's requirements:

As regular Web travelers know, freedom of expression and Christian charity are sometimes in conflict in the blogosphere. At Episcopal Café, we hope to establish an ethic of transparency by requiring all contributors and commentators to make submissions under their real names.

This is not unfamiliar turf for me. I do not use my whole name, but this part has in fact truly been mine since birth; and anyone who has been around this blog a while likely knows that much. I could also add other info that may or may not be familiar:

• Born at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and raised in Indiana, the eldest of three children.
• Graduated Purdue University with a degree in Metallurgical Engineering, and married the unreasonably patient guy who tutored me through all my Physics classes.
• Moved hither and yon about the midwest before transplanting to Montana last year.
• Mother to two children-- one home grown, one imported.
• Cradle and lifelong (barring college years spent wandering in the evangelical wilderness) Episcopalian.
• Attended Seabury-Western Seminary; ordained to the priesthood by one godly bishop, and now serve under the authority and direction of another as vicar for a regional cluster of four churches in Big Sky Country.
  

I decided long ago that hiding was futile. After all, we were warned when we used class blogs in seminary that our words would be visible to "bishops, Commissions on Ministry, and random passers by." It was part of learning that the priesthood is a very public ministry.

Yes, there are occasional trolls-- mean-spirited souls who feel the need to snipe and snark. I handle them via a time-honored method: the Maternal Time Out. Once that meant simply deleting spurious comments; recently I enabled the comment moderating feature that Blogger so thoughtfully provides.

I am certainly no magnet for vast quantities of attention... this is a little personal blog, and I do not (thankfully!) draw the legions that Jake, or AKMA, or other notables attract. However, the info is still out there, and so I simply do not post things I do not want known.

Welcome to my little corner of the blogiverse!