Journal: News & Comment

Impertinently public

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One day some time ago Eevie Oovy (I have no idea of her real name) linked here from her previous blog, and I've been reading her periodically ever since because she's so damn funny. Today she revealed that she's in the midst of getting divorced, and while that's something I have no experience with (my fabulous wife and I just passed our 10th anniversary, and my parents their 40th), she did write something I do understand:

I couldn't really accurately be described as a "private person." Most only children aren't—we never had siblings with whom to share our secrets or from whom to competitively guard them, and without the benefit of learning from that vetting process, we tend to spill willy-nilly.

I too am an only child, and have occasionally learned the hard way that striving for attention by revealing personal stuff (in student newspapers, in magazines, in speeches, and on this blog) can be dangerous. Without very stong instictive filters, I have to think consciously about whether I should write something that someone else (my wife, my kids, my parents, my friends) might (very reasonably) think too private.

There are things, some of them very big and important, that I've never discussed here, and may never. Just do you know.

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