New Blog Name – Everything Else Same Same

Hi everyone! Just a quick word about the change in my blog name to Sense & Sensibility. Everything else is the same but it was important to make the move away from Cents & Sensibility.

For starters, there’s a nice lady in California – who is a financial adviser – that has trademarked the name “Cents & Sensibility” for her business.  While I haven’t heard a peep out of her, I thought it would be best to re-name the site sooner rather than later. While I did have the word “Canadian” in front of “Cents & Sensibility”, I’m not sure that it’s different enough for trademark and copyright laws. Another consideration is that my blog is now monetized, I want things to be simple and straightforward – professional.

Also, I didn’t want to keep calling it “Canadian” Cents & Sensibility because I have a lot of American readers. Why alienate 360 million potential readers? Okay, it’s more likely to be nine potential readers but who’s counting?

More importantly, I like Jane Austen’s  illustration of “Sense” and “Sensibility”. The book is about two sisters who start out as very different from each other at the beginning of the book.

The first is Elinor, the older sister with a strong sense of responsibility towards her family and friends. She is logical and weighs the pros and cons of her decisions from all angles. While she is considered cold and unfeeling by other characters in the book – really, she just has a strong sense of duty and tries to do what she thinks is best for everyone. Elinor is always the sensible sister.

Marianne Dashwood is all sensibility. She is the younger, impetuous sister who is emotion-driven and follows her passions where ever they take her. She falls in love with the dashingly handsome John Willoughby because he is superficially attractive – even though he is a philandering bastard. As the book progresses, Marianne realizes that her sensibilities are selfish and short-sighted and that she needs to a change for the better.

While the two characters in the book – or the movie, in my case – have their strengths and weaknesses, I like what sense and sensibility shows me. Living at either end of the continuum is not going to be a great long term solution.

I feel that I’ve lived my life largely based on my “sensibilities”. I have made important decisions based too much on flash, fun, and feelings and not enough on thoughtful consideration of the larger picture. My blog is intended as a means of taking responsibility for these past actions and as a chronicle of my progress towards a more balanced approach to sense and sensibility. Thanks for reading this far! As a reward, here is a cute puppy picture.

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