Taking reader questions

"do you have thoughts or inner dialogue that you keep special/private that you don't share with the world?? that you don't offer up for their interpretation or ridicule?"

This question from a recent email exchange has been on my mind for a couple days. And I was trying to figure out why I had a strong reaction to it. The word ridicule kept bouncing around between my ears. Ridicule, ridicule, ridicule.

There are several answers to this question. And my first reaction was--maybe I'm an optimist. I have a readership of maybe six, plus the occasional stray who lands here. And all y'all know me. I don't believe ridicule is an issue. If it is, good for you. Thank you for spending so much time thinking about me.

But, then, I'm not really an optimist. More a realist. So my second answer to anyone who comes across this blog and decides to take out their upset on me is, "Fuck'em if they can't take a joke." Sometimes I'm happy; sometimes I'm sad. Sometimes I'm on a roadtrip with Stevie Wonder; sometimes I'm steps away from writing a grocery list. I'm not really here to impress.

 

 

Currier & Ives

The point of this blog was for self discipline. I decided it would be good for me to have a middle-of-the-road place where I'm not trying to write the Great American Novel and I'm not scrawling a deeply personal journal entry. It's a playground for me to explore the craft further. And it's a way for me to throw my fifty cents out there in more than 140 characters and away from the motley crew I'm friends with on Facebook. If I want to write a research paper on Allen Ginsberg, I will, damn it.

But in the end, "not really" is the answer. Of course I keep some shit to myself. But I'm also a pretty open book. That's my choice as an artist, a writer. My favorite writers and poets took huge risks in putting themselves out there. All in hopes that some other poor schmuck would come forward and say, "me too." I tout the gritty truth among my better qualities. I don't write anything here that I wouldn't say to a good friend. And with many of you, I've shared much more/worse. I'm human. And this weekend, when I am camping in Maine, I'm sure I'll share all kinds of inappropriate tidbits by the campfire. And I don't care. Life is too short to give a shit about some things.