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A very good friend of many years has found my blog. And she told me so in instant messaging. Uh – oh - my jig is up. I have now to be more careful dispensing BS around here. My ombudsman has arrived.
Let’s call her Marya
“Jan, are you there?”
Oh, I’m here all right. Wassup?
“Why are you invisible on YM?”
Ah, I don’t want to be bothered. But you can IM me anytime though.
“Jan, are you famous now?”
Hell no. Are you kidding me? Why do you ask that?
“Why are you making yourself inaccessible?”
“Because I need to get things done, that’s why. What’s up?”
That’s me talking with Marya a very close friend of nearly 30 years. She’s found me at last. And my blog. She read a few posts, looked at the comments, and chatted with me on YM.
So what’s the verdict?
She’s a mean writer back in college. Back then, we both wrote for the college paper. Today, she has a great career in the government, a junior executive specializing in creating reports to make the top brass look smart. Intelligent, funny, and compassionate, that’s my friend.
But Marya did not leave a comment. She noted though that I have been replying to every comment made on this blog.
Shorthand of friendship
Translation: I‘ve not been too accessible in email and text messaging, but I make myself accessible to every Tom, Dick and Jane in the blogosphere.
Touche.
Asked her to write a blog of her own. Her young daughter has one – why can’t she? And she said about not having the courage to put herself out there for everybody to see. “I’d feel like I’m naked.”
Translation: I’m just here curious to see what has become of you all these years you made yourself inaccessible to us. And whether you’d have the guts to make a fool of yourself here in your blog.
Awts.
More than anybody else, it’s Marya’s vote of confidence I’d live for. She knows me like the back of her hand. She knows when I’m full of BS. She knows how to coax me out of the doldrums. She knows me full well.
OMG. What if she had read my blog is in the running for the top 10 influential blogs of 2009? She’d slap her knees and laugh out loud. I will not hear the end of it.
This is bad timing. Why can’t she postpone her visitation until September when this brouhaha will have been over.
Tell me I’m not a sucky blogger
Her initial reaction about my blog? Nothing. Except for the cryptic, “Your writing style has not changed at all.” Do I make sense? Do my posts need a rewrite?. Silence. She changed the topic.
Well, I know what she will do: she’d visit me here every now and then, hold a post against the light for closer inspection. She’d do that – she’s that methodical – until she has sufficient facts to extol my efforts or enough evidence to hang me.
And what’s crazy about having great friends is that they have that power to tell me anything.
Yeah – including how my blog sucks.
High Priestess of common sense
But here’s the good part: she has that strange way making it sound trivial, a minor hiccup, a temporary displacement in the cosmos. Why? Well, my dear, Marya is the High Priestess of common sense and she’s quite adept at screwing back my head squarely on my shoulders.
That she might find me guilty of suckiness will not change the dynamics of our friendship. That’s how it works with us. A sucky blog will not undo 30 years of friendship for sure.
How about you, guys? Who’s keeping you honest when it comes to blogging? Have you found your own ombudsman yet?
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