Friday, November 16, 2007

Courage

Jess is my blog hero. I've been reading her blog for a little over a year, and have found that she is wonderfully open about all aspects of life. I'm sure like many others, I've laughed with her and cried with her and I've come to admire her open honesty and willingness to share.
There's a certain courage in letting it all hang out. Sure, there's a great element of anonymity on the internet that makes it freeing to share the most intimate details of our lives, but I wonder why we feel the need to hide these things from those that are closest to us.
Before failing to sleep last night, I was blog browsing, and came across this post at Wiping Up Snot and the related comments.
Shortly after (like the next day) I started my blog, I told my mom about it. Mom and I are close. (Hi Mom!) I told her I wasn't sure just how personal I would get on my blog, but I certainly didn't mind her reading it. If I did, I wouldn't have told her about it. Duh. She asked if I worried that if I posted something personal, did I think she'd think any different of me? No. If I post about being frustrated with her, did I think she would be mad at me? No. (Although I think she might be hurt to find out about it from a blog rather than hearing it from me directly) Did I honestly think she hadn't figured out that I had sex a couple times in my life? No. So why is it so difficult admit those personal things to the people that actually know us and care about us? Do we honestly, deep down, think it would change their view of us?