Susan Gray Blue
Now that I’m almost 40, I’ve found a whole new sense of happy adventure. Entirely as a coincidence, I also started blogging. Specifically, I’m blogging about my quirky religious background and the charming path I found that goes to a truer place.
I started my career as an English teacher in Kentucky and Tennessee, took a break for grad school in Minnesota and then headed to San Francisco, where I unwittingly began a career in online media. I worked for Citysearch.com for six years, ending up as the Senior Editorial Director in Los Angeles. Then I worked at AOL for two or three years in the D.C area before moving to Nashville and working for a small start-up for baby boomers until the owners shut it down about a year later. No longer working for anyone full-time, I smell flowers regularly. Roses are okay, but they’re not my favorite.
My fascination with finding symbolic meaning in consumer culture began back in 1998 when I wrote three ongoing shopping columns for Citysearch – Brand Nation, Made by the Bay and Fetish Object of the Week. I’m not drawn to the kind of superficial fixes that clutter our lives with meaningless “stuff” and or to the glib obliviousness to the world’s suffering that gives happiness a bad name. I’m talking about the power of finding fresh joy in the intensely particular forms of modern life. Instead of glorifying the same old boring negativity, cynicism and fear, we choose to peer beyond into the beauty.
I created a Charm-o-Matic for myself when I realized that I was responsible for my own happiness. After I experienced a religious un-conversion, I began putting all of the pieces back together to form a stronger whole – with an eye toward peace, beauty, kindness and innovation.
Now, I’m putting the Charm-o-Matic where all self-respecting machines belong: online.
The Charm-o-Matic generates techniques, tips and totems, all for your living pleasure. I love talking about these things, and I hope you’ll share what makes you happy too. I look forward to knowing you.
Charm-o-Matic 
July 9, 2011 at 1:05 am |
Hi Susan. I am very inspired by what you have done over the years and the nature of the work you have done. I’d love to hear more about your Religious UnConversion. I’ve read a great book recently by Rob Bell called “Love Wins” that is challenging many of my long held perspectives.
July 13, 2011 at 5:53 am |
Thanks so much — I really appreciate your feedback. I wrote more about the religion “un-conversion” over on my other blog. I haven’t updated it in a while, but I’m working on that. I also haven’t read the book you mention, but I heard about it. Thanks again for writing. I think it’s so valuable to share insights with each other along the way…