It’s 2014! A New Year, a time for resolutions, reinventions, and reformations.  Or, at least, anything that starts with R.  I’m not a huge proponent for making New Year’s Resolutions; however, I did resolve to start the blog I’ve been nattering about.

Deciding on a name for this blog was rather difficult.  I am a writer but ‘writer’ doesn’t begin to cover all my interests; which are many and varied.  No, I needed something more.  The title of Renaissance Woman had a nice ring to it and so I looked up “renaissance” in the dictionary.  The fourth definition I found bore a close resemblance to the thought I wished to convey: a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.; rebirth, revival (more “R” words). And yet, I was not convinced.

A Google search gave me the word ‘Polymath’.  Polymath is defined as “a person whose experience spans a significant number of different subject areas: such a person is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems.”  I learned that Polymath is applied to great thinkers of the Renaissance as well as the Golden Age of Islam.  Leonardo da Vinci is considered a polymath; so are Omar Khayyam and Hildegard of Bingen. 

I learned the term Polymath is used interchangeably with Polyhister and, while both terms seemed a more apt description of what I wanted to do with my blog, neither “Polymath Woman” nor “Polyhister Woman” rolled easily off the tongue.  Fortunately, as I continued to read through Wikipedia’s entry on Polymath, I learned that Renaissance Man had been used to mean Polymath in early 20th century.  Now thoroughly educated (and relieved I wasn’t stuck with polyhister) I settled on the title for my blog.

Why am I going ahead with Renaissance Woman when every blog tutorial I’ve read stresses the importance of finding your niche and focusing your writing?  Simply because I am incapable of specializing.  I have too many interests.  Seperate blogs for them all would mean one for writing, one for poetry, one for history, one for science, one for spirituality…I’m overwhelmed just thinking about it.  This Renaissance Woman blog will be a perfect receptacle for all my random thoughts.

Again, welcome!  I look forward to 2014.  The new year is full of possibilities.

P.S. Just for fun:  here’s a quote from Robert A. Heinlein that sums up a polymath:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.  Specialization is for insects.”
Time Enough for Love (1973)