Points of View
Two people in my inner circle have expressed opposing points of view with regard to be named and nicknamed in this blog- a blog that for all intents and purposes is read by so few people that I’m not sure why I’m giving this space today.
Person A doesn’t really “get” the blog but basically things that I’m a decent writer and that I’m free to write whatever I want without self-censorship. Person B doesn’t “get” the blog either but has made it clear that they do not want to be written about challenging me instead to write about things and events that are perhaps less personal and in doing so reach for broader readership. So instead of having 12 regular readers, I’ll have maybe 13.
Each of us has a personal narrative and the stories that we tell- the ones that are happening RIGHT NOW are the ones that beg to be told.
Like this one:
A friend of mine from Company X won President’s Club this year but wasn’t able to attend because the trip fell on the same weekend as his daughters confirmation. Company X extended the “runners-up trip” to my friend, “Mark” for a few nights stay in Las Vegas. Smartly, he left the wife at home, grabbed a friend and headed to the airport. His friend is kind of a “Bubba” guy- big dude, doesn’t travel a lot, not very worldly. So Mark, being devious jammed a bunch of gay porn into a vendor logo canvas duffel bag which he handed to his friend to carry when they got to the security checkpoint at Kennedy. Mark went through first and then positioned himself so that he could watch the look of utter terror when Bubba was plucked out of line, surrounded by TSA who donned latex gloves to reveal gay porn and a coke-can circumference black dildo which Mark had carefully wrapped in tinfoil thus ensuring that it would show up on the security screen. This episode could have ended in arrest but as Mark tells it, the TSA thought it was funny and I think Mark still has the bruise from where Bubba smacked him.
The blog will continue to evolve. I don’t know how to describe the things that are happening in my life or the ideas I have without also including tidbits about those closest to me as well as some who are on the peripheral but nonetheless contribute a detail that can add color to a story. I vacillate between wanting to respect people who have come directly to me and said, “Don’t write about me” and my tendency to “put it out there” no matter the potential cost to the relationship. Some humorists (Tucker Max, Chelsea Handler) are funny, in part because the offer an unfiltered, often unflattering, view of themselves and the people close to them. And it’s just a blog. A blog that only 12 people are reading.
I’ll let you know if I get to 13.
person C says you are more than a decent writer. You make me LAUGH. David Sedaris claims to “wildly” exaggerate. He is proabably telling the truth.