Why "SkyFey"?

Way back in my early girlhood (and for any young folk reading this, that would be not long after the discovery of fire), my mother told me that I was her "fey child." One day while I was playing in a dictionary, I idly looked up the definition of "fey" - and was dismayed to find that the primary usages generally mentioned "doom." The word's Old English ancestor, fæge, literally meant "fated to die," and this was especially true for those (like me) of Scottish descent; in later Scots usage, it also came to mean "possessed of second sight." Guessing, however, that my mother didn't think I had "Dying Soon" tattooed on my forehead, and knowing that she - a faithful Episcopalian - did not believe in ESP, I accepted another common definition: "marked by an otherworldly air or attitude" [Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary: fey, 2b]. Um, yes; that would be me: climber of trees, chaser of chimeras, daydreamer, rebel, stargazer, wishmaker.

And why "Sky"? I have a particular kink for the sky. I spent a good deal of that "fey" childhood lying under it, imagining possibilities as the ever-changing clouds of the midwestern U.S. constantly presented new shapes for my consideration. I also wanted desperately to be a jet pilot from early childhood on (probably the only "big" wish I was never able to fulfill). I did, however, spend the first half of my career in aviation, depending wholly on the sky - flying in it, writing about it, observing it, thinking about it. I still find it a canvas worth contemplating, at all times and in all seasons.

Thus, "SkyFey." It has long been one of my Web "handles" - a self-coined neologism that fits me pretty comfortably. When I decided to build a personal Web site, I thought, Why not use it? So here it is.

(Something else for which I have a major kink is typefaces. The one I use for body copy on this site is Bookman Old Style, at 9pts. I'm very fond of Bookman, because any time I see it, in almost any context, I am immediately taken back to the letter shapes of my earliest, excited days of learning to read. But that works best at 12pts., with big leading, and I decided not to give it that much space here. What can I say? Life's a trade-off.)

The links that are still "TBA" show that this site is still a-building. There's little real substance here: no fancy slide shows, not many pages. But I will add "stuff" over time: thoughts I'm thinking, questions I'm pondering, opinions I'm developing, maybe even some occasional activism. You're welcome to visit any time - and since we all live under the same sky, perhaps I'll even see you around!