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Comments

Stephanie

Has anyone ever written you back when you posted a "memory" post about them?

PG

I wonder if there's also an element, in your friends' and acquaintances' concern about spying on you, of their wondering whether they should take everything they read here as "real." Not to get into the James Frey debate, but I'm not sure that you really owe a lot of strangers on the internet the most accurate picture of yourself that you can draw; inasmuch as blogging is a writing exercise, I think you should feel free to add deeper shadows, brighter colors; to amplify some details and shave off others. To make the story better and more truthful as an expression of how you feel even if that sacrifices some factual accuracy.

With a Capital D

S,

I think it was Churchill who said that the reason we read is to know that we're not alone.

I'm a constant lurker ("spy") on you sight. I never post. It's your inner mono/dia-logues and self introspection which bring me back (some times several times a day . . .).

Why? In one word: reassurance. We all need the reassurance that there are others going through similar struggles, desires, yearnings e.t.c., and are still despite it all are still doing mightily fine. You express yourself well, and express feelings many of us have. I guess its sort of an invalidation for our feelings.

So although we may not comment on these more "personal" posts, these are the ones which draw us back again and again.

Keep 'em up!

pjm

I read your feed, so I don't see if other people are commenting. I did read that letter and think it was quite powerful--almost poignant--and I figured other people would say that. Perhaps I shouldn't count on them?

(The garage door probably *is* a rain thing - related to humidity and the expansion/contraction of the door panels.)

will

It does often feel voyeuristic.

I really enjoy your letters to people.

Me too. Do you ever write something and direct it to a person you 'know' to be reading? Bolgging is so cool!

DivaGirl

Its not so much the "spying" on someone - its that we all have had the same feelings! We all have had that same awkwardness, the same yearning to desire something. Then to have someone write those feelings on paper and you READ them and say "Oh my GOD, I have felt that way!" That is really powerful stuff. That, is material that makes one think, and sometimes cry.

Katrina

Thankyou!!! This has been on my mind for the last few months, as it relates my own blog: Is it boorish or self-indulgent to share a bit of the true person writing the posts?

I sometimes hesitate, thinking that like you aptly pointed out, maybe I should be posting about leaky toilets and bread-and-potato concerns instead. Reading your perspective on was very affirming to me...validating the pursuit of being 'real'.

I think PMJ is right; that although people might not necessarily give you as much feeback on these posts, that kind of authenticity is what draws people here, and creates a sense of shared experience.

Good for you!

Trevor

I am an ardent admirer of your writing. Personally, I don’t think these types of posts boring or self-indulgent. I think you give voice to many in that we, like you have almost the same feelings. It is honest. In Once upon a time you wrote, “I didn’t know how to try.” A simply sentence that explains a lot, it says much more than ‘sorry’ could. What you write stays with me long after I have read it. And sometimes I reread it, so that it stays a little longer. Most times with posts like these, at the end, I’m just left speechless and reflective. You're an amazing person.

Another thought on the garage door - could be that one of your neighbors has one that operates on the same frequency. And what appears odd times to you is in fact someone else coming and going.

Willie

What a wonderful time to be alive, eh?

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