Anonymity

I was composing a post much like this one: Half Changed World: Anonymity in my head this afternoon. I'm not fully anonymous, not fully public, myself. And I was thinking today about why that is.

I don't tell my students about my blog, but I know at least one of them found it last semester when I asked them to read a piece I'd written elsewhere. And I haven't told all of my family about my blog, though they can click the link at the bottom of my bimonthly column and find it themselves. And I've told more of my internet than RL friends (a distinction I find it ever harder to maintain, but that's another topic for another day). Internet friends already know me in this medium, after all, or one much like it (I've met them on various groups here and there), whereas the folks I have coffee with regularly are not actually my writing community. RL friends with whom I don't have coffee regularly--folks who live in far distant cities and towns but used to be my constant companions--are more likely than locals to read me.

And I was thinking about blogging rules in relation to this. I don't, like Becca, promise to blog every day I'm in town. (I do promise to make up for it by blogging several times on some days...) I don't blog about my marriage, though I do blog about the people in my life. ( I am fascinated and impressed, by the way, by other people's ability to be honest and open about their marriages and other relationships--because this blog is not all that anonymous, however, I'm just not going there. ) (Actually the real reason is probably that my marriage isn't all that interesting to anyone but us, now that I come to think about it.) I don't blog about work politics, though I'll mention my work. I try not to tell embarrassing stories about my kids, though I can't promise that it won't happen. I don't mention people by name unless they say I can. Except if they're members of my family, whose names have appeared here on occasion.

I can't claim that these rules are logical or coherent; they're just how things have turned out here. I'm an ad hoc blogger much as I'm an ad hoc parent, it turns out. I do what works until it doesn't. And so far that seems fine.

But if I know you and I don't know you're reading my blog, I'd love to hear from you! Just because, you know, I'd like to know.