Los Angeles, California
I had three titles for this post. The first was The Writer's Dilemma. Great title, right? Let's file that away for later. The second was Social Commentary. Obvious, right? Truth be told, all three titles fit the subject of this post.
When I started my blog, it was as a writing exercise and for myself only. I didn't tell my family nor my friends about it initially. But as I became more comfortable, I felt that some of them might enjoy reading it. There was humor, and in the beginning, recipes. But the subject matter was always social commentary, which is writing about what the writer (that would be me) sees around them. I have written about my family, and about my husband and marriage. Also about friends. I have commented on happy times and subjects, as well as personal tragedies. I have riffed on political issues and other things that have disturbed, upset, or irked me. My hope is that some of the topics and my writing about them, will resonate with readers, and might help them to process something going on in their own lives. Or at the very least, to feel that they are not alone in these areas. It is the writer's dilemma that the people who are in their orbit are grist for the mill. I think or thought that everyone gets this.
Calvin Trillin has written about this. His late wife and children are found in much of his writing, evidently whether they like it or not. Nora Ephron pretty much decimated the ex in Heartburn. It also occurs in fiction. In The World According to Garp, Garp has two young sons, as did John Irving at the time of writing the novel. On and on and on. I have often written about situations or topics which catch my attention and are more or less related to the people in my life. In all of the years of my blog, I have had only two complaints from someone related to the subject of a post, one of them recently. And, they were both from the same person. I reread the offending post each time they complained. And... there wasn't a thing there that I regretted writing. Truthfully, their complaints felt a little... parental. Sort of like a mother admonishing not to air our dirty laundry by talking about incidents or problems in their family. But there was nothing being aired here. No laundry. No personal conflict between us. Just my observations and opinions. Which... I kinda have a right to.
While I have sometimes used the first names of my friends, I have always protected their identity so that anyone who read my blog wouldn't clearly know the identities of anyone referenced there, especially since most of my friends don't know each other. And, it should go without saying, that this is not required reading, so anyone who is unhappy visiting should simply not. If it isn't obvious, it may require restating that this is a writing exercise for me. And writing through any scrim or filter would compromise the purpose of it as well as the quality of the writing.
As the writer of my own blog, I am not censurable. Nor will I self-censor in topics chosen, and subsequent writing about those topics. In fact, I am grateful that this gave me a blog topic, as lately I have been running on fumes, topic-wise, without much going on in life except Omicron, and some unrelated ill health news and another death, in my circle of friends. Which brings me back to the more recent complaint. With everything going on, and our continued inability to live life right now as we used to, is it maybe appropriate for me to want to write this about the complaint: Really? After we get through this, life will go on. And, probably, so will my blog, especially as long as I keep getting handed topics like this to write about. So, please don't shoot me. I am only the blogger.
No comments:
Post a Comment