Anyone, anywhere could be reading this.
We’ve webbed the world into our living rooms and bedrooms over cornfields, glaciers and oceans. Instantly.
That is the wonder of living in 2008 and experiencing the Small World Phenomenon of the Internet. Add Google to the mix and we have instant access to anyone who basically has ever lived (and who has an Internet presence). Any person I didn’t like in high school? Google them. Any person I might meet this afternoon? Google them.
Google my name and this blog is the first entry. Anyone who has ever known me basically now has immediate access to every aspect of my life that I share here. (As an aside, you will also find Sarah Markley the social worker and the graphic designer and one who is dead and is listed with her descendants).
And I’ve been vulnerable. I’ve shared weight loss stories, true failures in mothering, and basic hurts I’ve gathered throughout my life. People know all sorts of things about me, but I know very little about them. And I think its alright.
In one terrifying sense it is crazy to think I would share deep and personal things in a PUBLIC journal and PUBLISH it daily for ANYONE to peruse. Sounds like my 10th grade worst nightmare. It is the dream where I am naked in the grocery store or my high school Chemistry class and I realize it just as I enter. Yeah. In a way, that is what blogging is.
But diverting from the public nudity metaphor, there is a certain freedom in exposure. There is no longer anything to hide. It is liberating. The irony is that usually knowledge is power. But in this case, it might be freedom.
Of course I hold a little back. Each one of us has an inner piece that even our spouses or God has trouble breaking into. Each one of us keeps part of us safe and quiet from the world.
But I hope that anyone, anywhere reads me. By daily sharing, consistent writing, I have found it easier and easier to be vulnerably honest. And while I may not be the most inspiring blogger on the web, I might share enough of myself that someone might understand that she isn’t alone.
Sarah,
This is one of your best posts! From every angle…I loved it!
Keep writing, my friend. You are inspiring!
I think the “why we blog” thing is on a lot of people’s minds these days. I love this… I may just link to it, if you don’t mind.
I love your blog and the openness in them. You frequently inspire me. Thanks!
Excellent insight
it is crazy, but so fun to connect. thanks for being vulnerable.
i found you through annie d’s blog. i love the way you write, the things you write about, and your heart as you share your stories. thanks for blogging.
first of all, you are MY most inspiring blogger on the web. second of all, this post is kind of ironic because i just spend 2 hours talking about internet technology and the scary truths about it in my human rights class! but i think what you say is true, and knowledge can be liberating.
You inspire me daily!
awesome.
It’s really interesting, isn’t it? There’s this developing sisterhood of sorts – often virtual – but still meaningful, as we think and write and share in such a public and personal way.
It’s why I’m making an effort to comment now and then on blogs I stumble across and that I find inspiring (yours included!) – just to leave a small evidence of that connection, and to honor that vulnerability and sharing.
So, thank you for sharing and inspiring, Sarah!
It’s awesome. Thanks for sharing… glad I ‘found’ you.
there is only one denise teodosio jones (jonesidosio). i have been found by a few old high school friends.
i do keep it in mind when i am writing- that anyone could be reading… i think people admire vulnerability, and feel a sense of belonging because of it.
Thanks for letting us take a peak, and daring to be vulnerable.
I agree. Allowing myself to be vulnerable on my blog, even to people who I will never know, is liberating and gives me freedom to be who I truly am. For me it’s one more step in understanding who I am and who God wants me to be.
I think you are right. There are still small parts of ourselves that we don’t release into the blogosphere.
Some things are meant to be shared only between us and God.
ok, now this is two posts in one week that directly apply to me. Google is how I found you…and I’m so glad I did.
just friday night i was at a friend’s house, and in regular conversation she said a phrase STRAIGHT OUT of my blog, gesturing to me.
she said it as if she and i had talked about it over lunch three days ago. ‘cept we’ve never talked over anything alone at all…
and i just blinked – thinking she’d read my mind or something: what? how did she know that?????
then i realized she’s been reading my blog – the one-sided conversation about my life. we HAD been “talking” i guess… but, i didn’t know that she was listening.