a fresh start and belated blog birthday
Friends,
I love writing. And I love having conversations. I (maybe foolishly) thought that blogging would satisfy both of those loves. Posting started a bit over a year ago when I thought that perhaps my blog might be simply a cache of stupid haikus.
Right now, a little over a year into this blog’s creation, I’m struggling with the decision to continue with this mish-mosh format of crappy phone pictures and deeper and personal musings. Some readers want astringent & refreshing to be a fluff blog full of cute pictures of the cats, of the container garden, of the baby (when he arrives). That’s easy content to create, and I do like sharing that, but I’m a thinking human with a need to intellectualize.
I complicated things right off the bat by linking my Facebook account with this blog. I did so because I wanted to share my thoughts with faraway friends upon my move to Orlando, but linking to Facebook also meant that I necessarily shared thoughts with folks who found them perhaps inappropriate, or who actively judged and misunderstood things I tried to say. The internet is a lovely open forum, and if my content resonates (or doesn’t!) with a kindred stranger across the continent or an ocean, well that’s swell…..but I increasingly suspect that some readers who know me in real life cringe to hear about my opinions or lifestyle. At least strangers who disagree with you will do you the courtesy of unsubscribing from your blog instead of making backhanded disparaging comments in real life; I’d almost prefer a comment troll.
To mitigate this awkward awareness, I’ve oscillated between posting “fluff” regularly and posting content with substance only sometimes, which is not satisfying. I’m tired of censoring myself, but I’m unsure of the next best step. Do I create a whole new “fluff” blog for pictures of the baby, of the cats, of pretty flowers and ask astringent readers to go there for the lighter fare? Do I create a new blog for “real” content and turn astringent & refreshing into the “fluff” blog? Should I not give a rat’s ass about who may be readingand simply be myself even if it offends people? I think I know what the answer is…and I don’t like it, but I think that for my own mental peace AND to enjoy unfettered freedom in writing, I need to move the thought-provoking content elsewhere.
As a Jack-of-all-trades/generalist/non-expert on any topic, I’d like to write about topics as disparate as parenting philosophy and my approach to motherhood, how I enjoy menswear (and seeing other girls in menswear), about atheism (and, naturally, religion, too), the fact that my husband is the hottest man on earth, about education philosophy, about consumer minimalism and lifestyle minimalism, the spatial relationships between people and their environs, etc. etc. etc. Oh, and I occasionally like to swear when I write. Sometimes nothing else gets the fucking point across.
If that would be interesting to you, tell me. And if any of that would be offensive or disinteresting to you, that’s ok, too. Keep coming back here for updates on Kai; this particular blog isn’t going away, just changing format.
Miss Minty
