The Big But

I love reading biographies, and autobiographies. I suspect that's why I enjoy reading weblogs.

I enjoy seeing how others deal with the things life throws at them. I like hearing their stories and what makes them tick. What motivates them, what drives them. What is a blessing to them and what is a curse.

There are lessons I learn from their shared experiences.

I am encouraged when they have difficulties and find grace and strength to pull through. I am amazed to see the fingerprints of God on their daily coming and going. It gives me courage to keep on, but it also gives me great ideas of what I can try in my own life, to see life lived out well.

And it's not just these deep thoughts I enjoy. I enjoy being reminded of an old song someone just discovered. I can almost taste it when someone describes a new recipe. I'm refreshed reading new poetry. I take a mental field trip when someone describes a place I've already visited. So many simulating ideas.

But, (and that's a big but) there is a tension in this blogworld. The tension is one that writers have struggled with for years. It is the tension that exists when you tell your personal stories of family and friends that anyone can read.

I remember reading an interview with a well known author, who described a major tension within his family when he began to write in a more public way. His siblings didn't like their private, funny stories out there for all the world to read and that stress continued for may years. For some, the rift was never healed.

It's a tension that each writer needs to deal with at some point or another. I've made some decisions about what I will and won't talk about here, and I have yet to have a family member complain that my lines are inappropriate.

But, my frustration tonight is just how a number of my favorite pages that I read, are going quiet.

Some are sharing less and less "Personal stuff" because of the constant barrage of written abuse they must endure. One of my favorites has just shut er all down upon receiving threats of legal action from an ex. Another needs to be careful because now his neighbors know he writes.

I just read a humorous news item on how a thirty year old guys mom just discovered his weblog, and he's dying as he thinks about all the adventures he's written about in his blog. He's sure he's given his mother enough ammunition to use on him for years and years to come.

Popularity seems to be the death blow to the personal weblog. The thing gets going, and the events you honestly blog about draws a good readership. Eventually, for various reasons, some begin to criticize, or news of the Blog's success reaches those closest to the writer, and it all falls down.

It feels like good solid voices are being silenced by the basic nature of men and women, which isn't essentially good.

Let me encourage those of you who write, or should be writing, keep telling your stories. Find safe sensible ways to share your lives with us, as comfortably as you can. Let's honestly encourage each other and watch out for one another, as we struggle towards the goal.