I had a girlfriend once, Christy, who had the most annoying habit. Whenever a period of silence lasted for more than 3 seconds, she would inevitably chime in with a phrase that came to haunt me, "Penny for your Thoughts". It was like a compulsion. She couldn't stand to think that I had thoughts going through my head that I wasn't sharing with her.
Over the course of our year-long relationship I became conditioned to prepare myself to respond to the inquiry, "Penny For Your Thoughts", any time that I drifted into a period of quiet reflection. I lived in constant fear of that question. To this day, even though Christy is long gone and all but forgotten, I still catch myself posing the question or imagining someone else posing the question to me, "What's on your mind?".
Of course, I realize how absolutely ridiculous that is. What does it even mean to interrupt your own thoughts to ask yourself what you're thinking about? That's the damage that has been done.
As I was writing my previous post, "Installment 1 (of ?)", something didn't feel quite right. It was a story that I really wanted to share with friends and family but I felt like I was taking liberties by including personal information that Holly shared with me.
After ruminating all day, it finally occurred to me that if I were not careful, I might be inflicting a "Penny For Your Thoughts" style psychosis onto Holly. Should she have to live in constant fear that anything she tells me might end up on my blog? Or that our personal experiences might end up on my blog? Would it affect the things that she says or does around me?
With that in mind, I don't think that I will publish "Installment 2" of my story. Sorry.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
A very considerate conclusion!
Good decision! Blogs ought to be travel logs, bits of wisdom and wit here and there and the sharing of experiences. The personal and intimate thoughts and experiences recorded should be in a personal diary.
A couple thoughts for your penny:
1. It drives me crazy when people ask me what I'm thinking. Most of the time, I'm not thinking anything worth saying out loud, and when I am I'll say it. (This, of course, doesn't apply to anyone reading this who has ever asked what I was thinking.)
2. I agree that you should be careful about sharing the personal and intimate thoughts/words of others, but I enjoyed yesterday's post precisely because you were sharing your own personal and intimate thoughts. Modern society has a lot of stupid rules about what we do and don't share with others, I think, that result in a lot of isolated individuals believing falsely that they are alone. Whether or not a public forum such as a blog is the appropriate place to break down these barriers is an argument for another day, though. Perhaps on my blog. :)
Post a Comment