I started this writing caper in order to keep a record of my observations of Baby James. I had started to amass too many memories that were beginning to mesh together … he was growing and doing more stuff. I wanted a written record of events like his learning to roll, the fact that he could only roll in one direction and he would get stuck against things like the couch and walls and he would squawk his displeasure at being stuck, so I would turn him 180 degrees and he would roll contentedly in the opposite direction until he met another structural object. So I started jotting words, phrases and paragraphs with the intention of expanding at a later date.
Even though I had thought of blogging my record, I was more likely to use the old pen and paper method to journal, and then I came across a blog that is written by an old school chum (http://armagnacd.blogspot.com) and I was inspired to use this medium, rather than proceeding with my usual Luddite-like rejection of technology.
So I got onto the blogspot website and registered some details, ever mindful of the kind of information that I was putting out into the public sphere of the www, you know security and all that, I didn’t want to be a victim of identity theft, card scammers and Nigerians, who are crafty people or so I’m told by email. So, I’m Ben, no surname, from Brisbane, with a son named James, whose birth date has since been revealed. And I’m married too, her name is … My Sweet.
Referring to my beautiful wife as ‘My Sweet’ seemed to have a two-fold benefit. Firstly, it was a lovely reference that would gain me brownie points. Secondly, it was an anonymous reference that would keep her need for a safe environment satisfied. But over time I have discovered that this moniker is a difficult reference to maintain blog after blog. I have needed a new reference for My Sweet and given some of the people who are reading these posts know who I’m referring to anyway, and given those who don’t know us are still investing their time reading our stories, well, it seems an appropriate time to reveal a little bit more about ourselves. So, the name of my beautiful darling wife, the mother of our son, Baby James, is … Kylee.
Phew, I’m glad that’s out. Now I can move into a new world of blogging. I may however need to change the locks on the house, shut down my Facebook account and cease internet banking (which I don’t actually do anyway, remember my Luddite reference previously).
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Good grief, Ben. I know about this 'paranoia', at least that's what I call it. My anxieties are slightly different, though.
ReplyDeleteMy husband, with a legal background, is forever telling me how dangerous all this blogging is. A record will be kept forever and dragged out in the future by those who might want to besmirch my reputation. You can never tell how people might want to distort your words.
I have elected by and large to ignore the advice of the naysayers. Blogging is good fun and given that there are millions of people at it, I think it's crazy to think we are all going to be hauled before some imaginary court and found guilty of some unspeakable crime for speaking our minds in this public forum.
Over the last few months I'm amazed at how brave I have become in speaking in the blogosphere. It is contagous. But of course we all need to be circumspect in our dealings with one another, however intimate this writing experience might appear to be. Also I think it's essential to write respectfully and not get into gratuitous nastiness, as occasionally happens.
I wish the blog world had existed when I had my babies. I too would have found it helpful as well. Like you I'd love to have a record of the daily and rapidly changing world of my babies.
It is a treat to read about you and James and now Kylee. I respect your hesitations, but I'm glad you've decided to plunge in once and for all, no need to be to cagey, however thoughtful you might need to be in what you write. The blogosphere is fairy democratic, in the best sense of the word.