From time to time, it helps me to pause and do a quick assessment of my thoughts, feelings, and behavior. I like to analyze the foundational basis or the grounding framework from where my personal thoughts and feelings come, although "introspection" has been discredited regarding its scientific merits -- for how can one discover something new from within whilst using the same mental tools borne from and that are a reflection of one's limited perspective in the first place? To put this another way: the skills of my insight are both a product of and are a reflection of my mental present processes; how can I use them to discover "new" ground within myself, since such interpretations occur through the lens of the present self?
At first, I was not going to share the existence of this personal blog of mine with my family, friends, and acquaintances. The reason is that I want to avoid being judged, or worse yet, misunderstood. A quick recount of my historical interactions on Twitter and Facebook will reveal that I will eventually explore "socially unacceptable" topics, such as sexual taboos, religious taboos, intellectual taboos. Eventually, I will also write about "dark" topics, such as suicide, depression, anger and fear. I will write critically and sharply about love, men, women, passion, self-deception, and general sexuality. I will also explore philosophical topics and religious topics, and I will at times be silly. I also tend to take elements from modern culture and place a spin on them. An example of this is a recent post I made on Google+, "G'morning, all. Today's advice: beware of emotional dementors in real life. Not sure what a dementor is or does? Consult Harry Potter. :)"
The point of the matter is that there is always a chance that I will write negatively about things that you, the reader, hold most dear. My perception of the wold has, in part, been influenced through my interactions with others. Such experiences and interactions, and my personal thoughts arising therefrom, will populate this blog. What this means is that while I will be writing while having a specific person or a specific situation in mind, I will write in such a manner that the larger lessons arising from these interactions will surface. In other words, while personal interaction serves as the initial fuel for the commentary, the specific interaction is not the end.
If you think I'm writing about you, allow me to offer a couple of suggestions: (a.) keep quiet; no one else knows that I'm talking about you specifically until you pipe up in the comments and blow your own cover, (b.) I really wasn't talking about you, but it would appear that you have some paranoia and/or narcissism occurring -- remember that issues pertaining to the human condition can and do apply to more than one person simultaneously, (c.) treat the commentary as a learning experience overall, whether or not you "think" I was talking about you.
Since I shared the existence of this blog with family and friends, then it follows that people will assume that when I write, I must be writing about family and friends -- and while this may or may not be true, the fact of the matter is that I'm articulating the movement of my consciousness. Such movements are not limited to family and friends -- so please do not assume anything, even though I know you will in any case. And because I know that family and friends will be reading, acting as the Freudian super-ego it would seem, the content that follows will have to be structured in such a manner as to not arouse paranoia and narcissism in the first place.
This leave me, the author, in a pickle: I want to write about topics in a way that I feel that I'm not betraying myself or my intent, while at the same time, I know that I need to write in such a way that I'm sensitive to people's feelings. Regardless, I know there will be misunderstandings -- there always are misunderstandings, and hurt feelings come from these misunderstandings, and then awkward explanations are needed to soothe the hurt feelings, and everyone feels miserable for a while. Then time passes, and the situation happens again and again.
The issue of being socially acceptable while personally expressive brings up issues of its own: why is it that we must punish others with knowledge of the personal guilt they caused, why is it that we must take every opportunity to quell inklings of personal expression when we don't agree, and why must we make it known to both God and man alike that certain individuals hurt our feelings?
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