It seems to me many people on E2 come here with such open,
anonymous honesty it still shocks and amazes me now and then. That's what pulled me into this place, this
community in the first place. I don't know
the face behind your words, the various expressions that might cross your features, the sound and connotations of your voice. It's rare that I even exchange a
/msg with anyone here, and yet there I am, reading the most personal things of your lives. Nodes that make me laugh aloud at the cleverness or pure silliness of them, or those nodes that make you think of a certain issue in a different light, or those truly special
nodes that touch us deeply as to bring me to tears. They are sharing these things with us, sometimes the most detailed and personal and
honest accounts of their lives.
Obviously, this kind of openness can have consequences in
RL. I've written nodes and hesitated on the submit button for long periods of time, in fear those people I knew in RL who come to E2 would read them. Not particularly because it was saying anything about them, but because, as someone has said before, we're
never everything with anyone. Having a friend to talk to is wonderful, but noding somehow has it's own quality, it's own kind of therapy. Then there are those times when you
do want to talk about those certain people in your lives who read
E2, and what in the hell do you do? I find myself struggling with that very concept now. I can't write about those who read my nodes because I
will mold them in ways I normally wouldn't. Instead of doing that I'd personally prefer not to write anything at all. I'm not happy about that. Not at all.
Maybe noding about your personal life is a bad idea, but don't let those "consequences" take away from E2. Your experience here should be a good one, and if
noding your personal life would attribute to that, then do it. If people in your life can't handle it or somehow give you a hard time for it, I'd question whether they should
be in my life.
Or, you can always
get a new user name and not tell anyone who you are!