Publishing a personal blog, however neglected, poses some interesting dilemmas. Whatever you publish is open to everyone on the Internet: this includes those people that know you – potentially those people that like you. You’re writing for people you may interact with, may care about, people you may sometimes have to explain yourself to.
This is problematic, because you are aware of this. This awareness becomes particularly nagging when you’d like to explore wild topics, attack certain ideas, grapple with less accepted points of view. In many ways, you can feel bound to the “safe” discussions. Your awareness has a tendency to manifest itself as censorship.
And, unfortunately, when you “don’t go there” and leave things you’d like to explore untouched – you stagnate. When you’re constantly dealing with ideas and concepts you’re comfortable with or you’ve accepted – you become dull. Life loses all that makes it extraordinary.
Of course, you can still think about the ideas you avoid writing. But that defeats the purpose of a personal blog. You cheat yourself out of too much: a dated record of how your thoughts develop, a searchable cache of ponderances that may otherwise be lost, and the opportunity for feedback from the entire world. You shouldn’t do it.
What I’m really saying is: I shouldn’t do it anymore.
And so, I’m apologizing to you in advance. I’m going to write about things that might, well, piss you off – or make you sad – or embarrassed. I’m going to smash some sacred ideas of yours to pieces, and only occasionally attempt to put them back together. I’m going to put ideas you despise on a pedestal. And I’m not going to worry if you’re reading or not.
Otherwise, I’m not being fair to myself, or to you. After all, you may need to see something that startles you from someone you know, interact with, or care about. The world is more adventurous than most people – and its leaving them behind. I don’t want to be one of them, and I don’t want you to be either.
So, reader beware… nothing is off limits any longer.