Ask me about the secrets and boundaries of blogging and perhaps I’ll tell you the tale of the Arkansas redneck who threatened to bite my shoulder or the hick attorney who spent chunks of time stalking me throughout the blogosphere and digital world.
Could tell you about the Teaneck Tom who wasn’t aware of digital footprints, the FB reb who called me an apikores and promised to spread the word.
There are all sorts of pearlies out there and men of rust who appeared and disappeared through the years.
The twists and turns of life have played a role in removing some of them and they are gone forever but others may come back again, one never knows.
It is part of the journey and though we sometimes claim power to influence some people and some things there are powers we are never gifted nor granted no matter how hard we might try.
That is why sometimes we tap upon the keyboard to speak to those who won’t pick up the phone, text or write back or communicate in any fashion.
And sometimes those monologues upon the pages are focused upon those who aren’t ready, able or willing to talk about the harder topics that lie just beneath the surface.
Sometimes there is good reason not to because timing isn’t quite right and sometimes it is because you know once you go there you have to really go there and you don’t know where that twisted path ends.
Could be amazing, could be awful, could be both.
Eventually you cover those walks in the woods because the trails have to be cleared of the brush, but often you don’t know when.
You might find yourself sitting in a hotel room in Louisiana or East Texas mapping out when you need to hop on a plane to travel elsewhere distracted and unfocused because of something in the back of your head.
A rough memory of a time when someone told you all secrets are bad and that transparency in everything is the only honest way to live.
You might have shaken your head and told them that was an immature thought and that secrets can protect the dignity of others.
That is still true and still a code worth carrying. Some people don’t need to know certain things because there is no upside.
They gain no clarity or peace of mind and those whose dignity is abused lose much.
It reminds me of the homeless man who purchased a pair of my shoes at a garage sale ten years ago.
I made sure my son charged him a couple of bucks for them.
When my son asked why I explained how I had seen the man pull out a wallet so I knew he wanted to give something.
The two bucks he gave us might have been quite a bit for him but it appeared to me that not taking the cash would have taken more from him.
I am without question flawed and I can’t say I have never made mistakes or done things that in retrospect should not have been done but there have been some good moves and I am proud of that one.
When the time comes for my life to be measured I expect there will be a mix of those moments, hopefully more of the good than the bad but who knows.
We aren’t gifted with chalkboards that provide a real time tally and there are those shades of gray.
But we won’t spend time evaluating what is good and what is bad and how many things once were considered acceptable but aren’t now.
Maybe in a different post, but it won’t be this one.
Instead we’ll say those who never question never really live and leave it at that.
Been playing around for a while with whether I want to take one of those master classes we see famous people offer on YouTube.
There are a few that have caught my eye, but one in particular grabbed me today with the opening:
“One of the great challenges in this world is knowing enough about a subject to think you’re right, but not enough about the subject to know you’re wrong…”
Don’t know if I’ll actually do it, don’t know if there is enough meat in the course to hold my attention or even how much it costs, but I like the idea.
I like thinking. I like taking time to figure out how things work and to question the ins and outs of stuff.
Certainly like turning off my brain sometimes to decompress too, but I can’t imagine a life that doesn’t include some mind of mental stimulation.
Here is the trailer for those who are curious.
George’s guitar is gently weeping and I can feel a shift in the wind that I can’t quite identify.
Got a feeling that some of the things I decided I would do or be part of might be changing. Don’t know if that is good or bad and not really trying to figure it out.
If I am right some things will happen no matter what I do and if I am wrong, well I am wrong.
Reminds me of a conversation from long ago in which I told someone to not live a life where in order to have certain experiences you had to say “I’ll see you in my dreams.”
Still true to me and still of paramount importance. Don’t ask me to share more here because there are still secrets and boundaries in blogging and some things you simply don’t need to know. 😉
