I was talking to a friend of mine today and he mentioned that a gal he’d met online was surprised to hear he had a blog. She thought it would be very uncomfortable to have your thoughts put out there in a public forum for anyone to see. It’s an interesting point, because there are certainly times where it’s nice to be able to hide your beliefs or politics or opinions in the name of getting along or fitting in. I’ve always said I feel open, honest representation of yourself is the best way to live – but sometimes it’s not so easy to actually live out.
When I started this blog, I deliberately obscured my name and was careful not to link to it from my Facebook or anything else that had my full, real name. I didn’t want this blog to come up whenever people looked up my name, because I knew some of what I wrote could be controversial. I didn’t want potential employers or coworkers to find what I wrote and get offended by what they saw.
But a while back, I don’t remember exactly when, I decided that it wasn’t in line with my policy of transparency to try and hide this blog behind a fake name. Now, I still use the first name and last initial moniker because it’s a habit and it’s consistent across where I post elsewhere, plus it’s just easier. But this blog is now the #2 search result when you look for my name, only behind Wikipedia’s article on the eponymous railroader from the 1800s.
Not actually me.
And I don’t mind, because this is who I am. And if I take a little flak for being excited about the Scripture or thinking that socialism is a terrible form of government, then so be it. What I would love is if someone came up to me at work tomorrow and said “hey, I googled you the other night and found your blog. Can I ask you a few questions about this whole Jesus thing?”