Blogosophy

I know I said I was working on a 2013 post, and I am working on it, but I'm not positive I'll actually end up posting anything. Once I wrote down my goals and my reasons for choosing them and my thoughts and feelings I realized everything about my entire life was in there. Kinda. It's probably more accurate to just say it was very personal. So then I freaked out a little bit and decided my blog probably wasn't the right place for all that. Maybe I'll revise, maybe I won't. Either way, I'm sorry that I told you such a heartfelt thing exists and then refused to share it.

To make up for it, I figured I'd share a bit of my blogging philosophy. Because I can totally understand how someone might think I'm being ridiculous or "not myself" on my blog if I don't feel comfortable posting something simple like my goals for the new year. After all, I can blogstalk with the best of 'em, and I suffer from my fair share of nosy, so I hate it when someone holds back. Allow me to explain.

For what I consider to be obvious reasons, I refuse to post things like my address and my phone number on my blog. Adding an email address to my "About" page was pushing it. This is called common sense privacy, I think.

In addition to these things, I have a brief list of topics that I have promised myself to never discuss on my blog. Some of them are relevant now, some of them have to do with my future (children and husband and such), but all of them will simply never be breached on here. If I feel the need to write on these topics, I go to my journal. 

The reason this list of topics is necessary for me to have is simple: they are the dearest parts of my life. If I'm going to post everything about me online, I either have to limit who can read, or I have to limit what I write. I dislike the idea of limiting who can read my blog because I don't want to write for a specific audience, a few people whom I have hand-picked. Part of the wonder of having a blog (for me, at least) is writing something that might just strike a chord with someone out there I've never even met. And even if it never happens, I still like the idea enough to do the upkeep on a public blog, which means limiting what I write.

The challenge, then, is to still provide a comprehensive glimpse into my life and my being without breaching the forbidden topics. I feel like I hear a lot of noise from bloggers about how there's such a problem with "other people" portraying perfect lives on their blogs and they don't want everyone to think they live a Pinterest-perfect life, so they'll write this post on their flaws and show that picture of their dirty dishes so they seem more "real." But I think there's still a problem with that way of thinking! Because although it's true that I don't want my readers thinking I live a life of perfection, I also don't want to deliberately tell them the parts that stink every now and then just for the express purpose of...exploring opposition? complaining? making others feel better about their own imperfect lives? That doesn't even make sense! I mean, I love you guys, but if your happiness depends on my dirty dishes, then maybe you need to read a different blog. And I'm sure this isn't always what bloggers are thinking when they post "imperfection stuff" but sometimes it comes across that way. If you have a blog, you needn't worry about telling me how you're imperfect because I shall assume it anyway.

Ok so that was a soapbox thing, obviously. Sorry.

Anyway, I do generally try to avoid that type of post. The comprehensive view I aim for is not so much of "cutesy parts vs. ugly parts" or even just "the good alongside the bad," but rather all the stuff in between both extremes. Some days are awesome and some days are poopy and some days are just meh, but most days are actually a combination of all those, so that's what I want my blog to be. "A Little Bit of Lys: Sometimes awesome, sometimes poopy, sometimes meh, mostly combinations of the three!" 

The good news is that it is totally possible to create such a blog without breaching the forbidden topics. So that's what I try to do and that, in a nutshell, is how I try to blog. I try to use my corner of the internet for things that are relevant and important to me at the time I post them, while still staying within the bounds of comfort and privacy. I try not to worry about the degree of life-changing-ness or the amount of imperfection in what I publish. I try every now and then to post something which challenges me, but that's really just for my own personal growth and to add a little variety. And it still doesn't have to involve things I'm not comfortable posting about, which rocks.

Finally, the really, really nice part about the way I blog is that I don't ever feel like I have to post or not post an idea. If I write up a big long essay and then decide I hate it, I don't have to post it. If I think of something others are going to disagree with and say it here, I don't have to worry about repercussions [too much]. I try not to offend, but I don't fret when I accidentally do because, hey, that happens in real life sometimes too. Essentially, if, for whatever reason, something doesn't feel like I need or want to put it on the internet, I just don't.

So. To bring this long thing full circle, I decided not to post those goals tonight simply because a) they verged on a breach of forbidden topics, and b) by the time I finished writing them, they weren't really what I had hoped to post to begin with, and BONUS) they gave me an excuse to rant about my thoughts on blogging, which I've been considering doing for a while anyway. #winning

Thanks for listening to my blogosophy.
And yes, that term was totally inspired by Phil's-osophy.