Pondering...

Scout gets all festive.

Hi there, gentle readers...

WHADDUP?!


I have been frantically (albeit, in a ladylike manner) working on a couple of things which have to get out in the mail ('out in'--good syntax). I've also been under the gun at work (figuratively speaking), and just generally too busy to be so busy.

But I thought I'd take a moment to share something that's been rattling around in my mind. Because, and I'm sure you won't be surprised at this, I'm a giver.

You know how sometimes, there's a pattern that develops among the things that keep raising your attention? Lately, that's been happening to me. Specifically, I've been noticing over the past few weeks that I'll run across a blog here and there in my surfing, in which the blog owner will say something to the effect of, 'this may not be appropriate for an art blog,' or something like, 'I hope this doesn't offend anyone.' Or, in the course of a conversation with a fellow blogger I'll hear something like, 'I hesitate to talk about that because I don't think readers would want to see that side of me' or, 'I don't want to lose readers' or, 'its not very cheery stuff for a blog.'

After hearing/reading a certain amount of these hesitancies among us art-bloggers, I started wondering where, exactly, this sort of discomfort come from. I have to admit, I censor myself quite often when writing to you. I'm probably more hesitant to offend than almost anyone. But I was surprised when I began to realize more and more, that others feel that way, too. Even people I would never suspect. I read a blog recently, by someone I consider brave and completely open, in which the author offered apologies for sharing character traits which might surprise the reader and be looked upon as negative. And I didn't see one of the mentioned traits as being particularly negative or positive. They just are what they are. Why would the author be hesitant to share them?

So, lately I've been wondering why so many of us creative, warm, open, interested, giving bloggers second-guess ourselves so much. I realize no one really welcomes others' disapproval and none of us seeks to disappoint or offend. And for some of us this virtual community is the best support we can have and something we've come to rely upon in certain ways. It's understandable that we wouldn't want to risk losing one bit of the support we sometimes need when venturing into new artistic realms, and new personal realms, as well.

But at the same time, it makes me feel sad--that we would fear other's judgments to the extent that we would hide a lot of who we are. Or that we would apologize for who we are. Do we really believe that no one shares our insecurities, our moods, our anger, our darkness? We assume everyone is joyous, but can we not also assume that our comrades are scared? Or, in fact, cranky? Or that some people may actually disagree with us? Or not share every one of our likes and dislikes? Do we really imagine that our readers are so delicate that they will abandon us if we act like a snot once in awhile? It occurred to me today that maybe I could try to have a little bit more faith in the smart people in our community which I so enjoy visiting every day. Maybe I could have a little bit more expectation of understanding.

These are some of the things that have been floating around in my head lately.

Along with all the Fabri-tac fumes.



Next up: Chris alienates Fabri-tac fans and is booted off Blogger.