E-tail therapy and other tidbits

(posted here because I missed the opportunity to comment on original post)

I don't know if I agree with the overwhelming importance of watching what we say in a blog. Of course, we should be responsible and ethical. We should not, under any circumstances, compromise OTHER people's privacy with what we say, but I think discussing your own life should be free and not guided by fear of public reaction. Maybe it's because I'm a writer, and as a writer (and an artist), part of what we do is just throw things out there and let people react. Some people don't understand that, and I realize it takes a fair amount of bravery to do so.

My blog is both personal and professional, and I see no difference between the private and the public me. I'm not some celebrity and most people couldn't care less about me or what I write. And even if I were famous, maybe that would be refreshing, someone in America NOT concerned with their fucking image--should I buy this car, should I wear these clothes, should I use this computer, does my Southern accent make me sound dumb. I'm SO sick of this America. Nothing is real. It's all image. If something happens to be real and genuine and honest (and therefore challenging to a plastic culture), people are pressured to make it acceptable by dumbing it down to an unthreatening commodity to enhance their image. And the moment blogging becomes so "safe" as we have to be extremely concerned with what we say for fear of what other people think (in other words it becomes an image we project), it ceases to be real and it goes into a closet, much like the homosexual closet. And, I would argue, loses its cultural validity and most of its originality and fun. If your privacy is so valuable that you fear exposing it, maybe you shouldn't blog. Or maybe you should consider why you blog in the first place.

I blog like I cook. I don't measure things. My southern roots show up in that everything has pork in it. I throw garlic in, some onions, some salt and pepper and everything comes out good because I do it by "feel." In my blog, I throw in my sex life, I throw in my depression, I throw in my personal journeys, my yeast infections, my diabetes, my prejudices. It all comes out good because it, much like a Southern meal done right, is HONEST. I refuse to measure my words for fear of compromising my success or my privacy or whatever illusion our Puritan, marketing saturated culture passes off as such. Blogging is, IMHO, first a creation, and therefore an art. To be relevant, art cannot be measured for image-sake. Art is not calculated. Art just is.

My two,

Scott