Mary and Marie are, to me, representative.
Mary is a Biblical name… and there were a few of them. Mary, mother of Jesus. Mary Magdalene. Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus. To me, the Mary in my title is a bit of each of these. The first two Marys are archetypes, of a sort. I wanted to invoke both of these images-- of light and darkness; pure, outcast (and redeemed, just the same) all at once. Perhaps most accurately, though, the Mary in my title is the last Mary, the Mary who sat at Jesus’ feet. I wanted to solidly put forth the image of this blog as the musings of a Christian woman. And, more often than not, musings about Christianity and musings about women. And about women who happen to be Christians.
And Marie? Curie, of course. Because, as xkcd so aptly points out, she is the posterchild for women in science. She is, certainly, the first female scientist I was introduced to, in a flimsy little illustrated book somewhere around the third grade, I believe, when I first decided I wanted to be a scientist. And she is also one of the most impressive women in science and one of the most impressive people in science, more generally, if I might make that claim. Specifically, she is the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize, and the only person to receive two Nobel Prizes in two separate scientific fields. I wanted to make it clear that this blog will often be about science and academia.
Specifically, this blog will focus, quite often, on the intersection of these areas. The-- often fraught-- beauty and complementary nature of these areas. Of science, femininity/feminism, and Christianity. Other topics may include more general commentaries on one of these topics-- or related topics like social justice issues or work-life balance, art, personhood or grief (which all kind of fall under the main headings of these topics as well…). Sometimes, I will allow someone else’s words to do the talking. Or artistic expression instead of words at all. But mostly, this blog is about Mary and Marie.