Welcome to Sword & Shields
They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but I say why choose?
Hello, bonjour, hola, konnichiwa, guten tag! That’s about all the polyglotism I can offer, I’m afraid, aside from a smattering of A-Level Spanish. I’ll be writing exclusively in English, although that’s the only certainty about the content of this blog. I can’t promise to stay true to any particular topic, because there are so many to explore, and choosing just one would be like confining myself to only eating one vegetable for the rest of my life. Yes, I could pick one, but why would I? Broccoli may be the best vegetable in the world (and no this is not up for debate!), but that’s no reason to cast aside the crunch of carrots, or the festivity of sprouts. Before I get completely swallowed up by this food metaphor, however, I should probably introduce myself, and this blog, properly.
So, hi! I’m Libby, and this is Sword & Shields blog, so named for the fortunate way my family name matches my love of high fantasy and sword-fighting. I’ve already told you not to expect consistency in my blog, so what can you expect? In short, anything and everything. When somebody tells you that they’re starting a blog, you might start thinking of Pinterest-perfect parents sharing their ideas for packed lunches, or seasoned travellers showing off another stamp in their passport. That’s certainly what I used to think, and I was sure I could never write a blog. I’m too boring, too fickle in my interests, too overwhelmed by the world at large to pick one subject to dedicate myself to writing about every single week.
So I didn’t.
When somebody, using a well-meaning relative, asks “Why do you like to write so much?”, it’s difficult to answer. Why does anyone write? Because they have something to say, some grand idea that the world needs to hear? I can hardly decide what to have for dinner every night, I certainly shouldn’t be the one coming up with world-improvement schemes. For fame, riches, and glory? That sounds like a lot of pressure, definitely not the life for me. My own reasons for writing are far less glamorous, far more selfish. I write for myself, to understand the things around me by putting them into words, capturing a part of them and dissecting them into tiny pieces. The world can be cruel beyond measure, anyone opening a newspaper can see that, and trying to care about every single article is impossible, not to mention exhausting. By breaking things down into their bare essentials, we can see through the media scandal, the public hysteria, and the twisted words of politics, to the core of the matter, and only then can we start to truly understand our world.
That’s why I write, to make sense of the madness. It doesn’t change the world, maybe it won’t even change my life, but it helps dismantle the towering pile of “Reasons Things Are Terrible” into more manageable sections. In Sword & Shields, I invite you to come with me on that journey. We’ll take life one word at a time, moving from current affairs to the changing of the seasons and everything in between. If that sounds like something you’d like, then join me next week. I don’t know what I’ll talk about, but I promise to make it interesting.
