This Blog: F.Y.I.

I had always thought that blogs were a good idea because they accorded individuals the opportunity to express their own views about issues without having to tow some “party line”.

If you go to a church or some other religious institution, you’re expected to speak in a certain matter and never broach sensitive topics that question doctrine. The idea is (1) you chose to attend this church, (2) here is the church’s belief statement, plain for anyone to see, and (3) if you don’t like it, you can go somewhere else.

The same can be said for the work environment. There are standards usually presented there by management that restrict to some degree the speech of the employees.

If I submit a writing for publication in a magazine or newspaper, or as a book, it must pass the scrutiny of that publication’s editor before it will be printed.

At school in the classroom, whether you are a teacher or a student, there are also standards which restrict and focus the expressions of those involved.

And so on.

I’ve written articles on this blog for which I’ve received comments both of agreement and disagreement. I welcome both of these types of responses with the realization that this is the whole point of blogging as I see it: it is a forum in which people can express their individual views and discuss them without being tied down by some externally-imposed doctrinal standards.

I’m not in this endeavor to garner anyone else’s approval. If you come across this blog and can get something out of it, then great! If not, then, F.Y.I., you don’t have to read it! But I will never censor my own legitimate opinions just because someone else feels put out by them. That’s not what this is about.

And that’s the beauty of personal blogging. I appreciate blogs whose writers are honest about their views and experiences, and aren’t just trying to tow someone else’s line for approval. Of course, getting included in a blog carnival or “circle” doesn’t imply the opposite; sometimes people with common ideologies or interests just coalesce.

I can tell you right now that….

--Skeptics may object to my occasional excursions into the mysterious and spiritual.

--Doctrinaire religious people may object to my disagreements with their doctrines.

--Conservatives and liberals alike may object whenever I don’t tow their ideological line on a given issue or personality.

--Academics may object to me, a lay individual, discussing a topic that lies within their professional spheres of expertise.

--Since my blog jumps around from topic to topic, anyone who just wants to read a blog that precisely fits a narrowly-defined category may object to it.

-And some people, incredible as it may seem, may object to me discussing my own life experiences since these didn’t correspond to their own (how could they?).

I’m basing some of what I’ve written here on my experiences in visiting other blogs and observing how their authors relate to each other. I'm also aware that more people who personally know me around town may be coming in contact with this blog. If you’ve taken the time and effort to read it with an open mind and/or even submitted comments whenever it suited you, then you can pretty much exclude yourself from what I’ve written above; you already “get it”!