What's in a Name?

Oh, I could have chosen any number of names for this blog. There is so much in my life to write about--not just fiddling, but what I'm writing and what I'm reading and what I'm doing with my life, which is a lot...oh, and I'm a longwinded, psychological, philosophical sort of person, too, which accounts for a lot.

But I came back to "Fiddler in Tuning" because of something that happened on my 15th birthday, which (last year) coincided with the Washington Old-Time Fiddler's Association District 6 Christmas Party. I have been a member in good standing of WOTFA ever since October, 2007, I think. I'm not positive on that one...I just remember getting the little membership card and thinking: "As opposed to bad standing? What's bad standing?" And then I thought: "Oh, no. I know two people in the whole entire district and one doesn't even go to the meetings." However, since then, I have forged new friendships. But I digress.

At the Christmas party, we all had nametags...you know, those little sticker-things that you write your name on with a sharpie and then stick on your sweater--late that night, after you remove the nametag, there are many bits of cloth stuck to the adhesive. Ah, well, such is life. Well...you don't know me well (yet), but I'm not the sort of person to write my name and have done with it. That is banal, boring, tedious, what-everybody-else-does, etc. So I took a pen and added "Fiddler in Tuning" underneath it. I went back to the table where my mother and father and sister were talking to my wonderful teacher, Lucy. They all looked up to see me, and my father shook his head and my mother gave me the look that clearly said: "Here we go again." My sister laughed, and so did Lucy, who said: "Fiddler-in-tuning. That's excellent." She, of all people, can tell that I'm in the tuning process. I can't play a double-stop in tune; I know no ornamentation; and I have a minimal repertoire. But I'm improving. Eventually we'll get this fiddler in tune and then...watch out! Well, maybe not. Writing is my thing. But fiddling is an important hobby of mine, and I would like to be in tune.

Quite frankly, I want to be in tune in all areas of my life, not just fiddling. I want to write better, to think better, to know and trust and love God better, to teach better, and to live better. So fiddling's just one facet of my life, like it is for anyone. So I suppose the title is appropriate.

So, who am I? Aside from a 15-year-old female resident of Seattle, Washington and a perpetrator of bad jokes, that is? Well...I'm somewhat anonymous. But I'm a thinker, and a dreamer, and a writer...a teenage girl who only got her ears pierced in January, a girl who wears her mother's dresses to church, who doesn't wear makeup. I am a Christian, a Lutheran at that, who is extremely into theology. And I am homeschooled and love it...both the "home" and the "school" part. My best friend is my mother, and my second-best friend is my sister. Is that a good enough introduction for you?

Well, I may be strange, but this I know for certain--like anyone, I am a human being in need of fine-tuning. And while I'll never be perfectly tuned, I certainly hope to fiddle with the knobs for a time.