Sharing

On Thanksgiving my brother and sister in-law informed me that items I share with comments via the Google reader are public. To which I immediately responded "Oh Crap!" but then about a second later was more like "Eh, fuck it." Since then I have been thinking a lot about my initial reaction and the following one. And have decided to break it down for you.


The reason for caring at all about comments, writing, etc. posted on-line being viewable by the public are :

1. You are a private person and don't want to share your views with the world.
2. You are worried about what people will think.
3. You are concerned that your views will be on the Internet forever and ever (and they probably will) and that your kids/grand-kids/great-grandkids will read them.
4. You will get fired and/or not get a job because of stuff you have written.


While I am not disputing the validity of any of these concerns, I realize that they do not pertain to me whatsoever. I have chosen to be a writer and in doing so have learned through years of agony, that I have no hope of ever being successful at it if I chose to care at all who reads what I write, and subsequently what their opinion of it or me is after having read it.

Writing takes great courage. One of the reasons that I was able to complete a novel this past month (and yes, I am going to bring that up for a long time. Get over it)was that I finally embraced the genre and style that I enjoy reading and writing. If I ever edit it down enough so that others can read it and perhaps even get it published, I have to accept that some people, probably even people I know aren't going to like it. They may even hate it. But really, who cares? I probably don't like those ugly pants they have in their closet. Should they care? Nope.

So for me, the fact that my daughter may read a comment that says "George Bush is a total douchebag" regarding an article I shared, really doesn't bother me. If she asked me about it I would probably respond by saying "Yes, it's true, back in the day he fucked things up a lot and he is probably still a douchebag." I am what I am. I say what I think and I really don't care who else reads it.