My blog about blogging

Today I was sitting at a table with a group of ladies I have come to adore over the recent months, and the topic of privacy came up. Each of them, a good 30 or 40 years older than myself, spoke of being private people and not wanting their information out there in cyber space. They turned to me, the only one at the table who blogs and one of only two who facebook, and looked quite concerned for my own personal privacy.

I told them of how I began this blog for my family to keep up with the growing kids as we embarked on this life far away from anyone with common genes. I went on to talk about the crazy amounts of strangers wo visit regularly. I don’t mind it, I just didn’t expect it. The conversations quickly meandered to other topics of a political and spiritual nature, but my mind was drawn back to that issue of privacy out in the public world.

I always considered myself a very private person, but I have also come to find great value in the insights of strangers. Perhaps it is because my blogs topics are often about religion or family and those topics may naturally draw a gentler audience, but everyone who visits and drops me a note seems to attach a pearl of wisdom to their sentiment that stays with me for quite some time and feeds my thoughts with kindness and motivation. Maybe there are scummy creeps reading too, but so far they haven’t contacted me or heckled me in any way.

So I sit here wondering, can I really call myself a private person when I so enjoy what I receive from complete strangers? I observe certain safety precautions so that hopefully no one could track me down and show up at my house, but I suppose I do put it out there for examination. And there are precious few people out there who, if they googled themselves, would not find a big flashing arrow pointing out their exact location in life for anyone willing to look.

I guess I believe that the world has this fundamental principal that if you put good out there good will come back. If someone else can read about my difficulties as a first time, wannabe faster or about a mothering triumph and feel like they can take that and use it in a positive way in their life, then I think that this little privacy degrading thing we call the internet may actually be of some value. Here’s to forming communities, in person and in cyber space, that enrich the human experience and make it easier share love and encouragement with friends around the world.