Private

I am taking my blog private for the next several months, maybe longer.  As you may know (or may not), I am running for office.  I spoke with my writing teacher and mentor, and she recommended I take my blog down during the campaign.

"You have to decide if this could help you or hurt you.  If you only had a few posts, that would be one thing, but you have a lot here.  You are vulnerable and as your writing teacher, I am proud of you," she said.

But...

"Since there is so much there, something might come back to hurt you.  You might be better off taking it down."

My friend Eleanor agreed, but for a different reason.

"People who write blogs only write about themselves and what they do," she said.  "They tend to be exercises in self-absorption."

But I try to write about the challenges I face, difficult decisions, turning points, conflicts, places where I changed my mind...

"How many blogs do you read?" she asked.

None.*  Point taken.  I'd like to think--like many mom bloggers do--that I was channeling Erma Bombeck, catching those moments of home life and making them into something worth sharing, that others might find comfort, laughter or tears.

I am slightly mourning the loss of my blog, even though it is still here, but in a mode where only my nearest and dearest can find me.  My friend Diane said having an unpromoted blog and hoping people would find it on the internet would be like hoping someone would randomly pick up a piece of sand on a beach.  She is right.  Nevertheless, I liked putting thoughts and feelings on the internet and see what would turn up.  It felt like I was a kid riding in the car with the windows rolled down and my head leaning out with the wind in my face.  I was exposed, but not so much.  Writing my blog was a risk, albeit a small risk, but a risk nonetheless.  I love the creative outlet this blog gives me a few days a week.

A few new people were finding it, somehow.  I've had a few more readers here and there.  I don't know who they were, but maybe I'll find them again if and when I re-open my blog to the public.

Now I am open to a new vulnerability-- running for office.  I met a friend for coffee who once ran for office.  She sad she felt completely naked, out there shouting her opinion, vulnerable.

* I used to read the brilliant Hyperbole and a Half, but the author has since taken a break.