The very fact that i am writing this blog means that I'm willing to give up my privacy - hey, but not my copyright! (There's an "all rights reserved" link on the left side of your screen.) Not only that, I'm looking for ways to expand my audience. Writers, of course, are used to delayed gratification and resigned to the fact/possibility that they will never have an audience. Process is everything. We know that and accept the joy of writing in and of itself. However...it's nice to have an audience. It completes the equation, closes the circuit: from me to thee. That being said, I'd like to have a small audience, and one that offers a little feedback. That's the second part of the equation, a continuing dialogue, an interaction between the writer and the reader. I get about one fan letter every other month, and what a diverse bunch of readers it represents. I had one from a woman thanking me for my leftovers cookbook, published over 40 years ago now, and telling me that she learned to cook and to be frugal and to be comforted in her first efforts as a newly-wed fledgling in the kitchen. That's nice. And a man who lives in my building came to me last summer offering to scrape and paint the rusty railing on my balcony and then when he was doing it, said "you may wonder why I offered to do this." Well, yes, the thought had crossed my mind. He said that years ago he had read some advice I had offered about financial arrangements (I guess it was in my book on retirement ) that had been very helpful and he just wanted to pay back. Wow. Never under-estimate the power of the printed word. So what has that to do with privacy? A lot, really, Because if I had never been public, I would never have had my balcony railing painted. There you go.
how private do you want to be?
I'm still thinking about privacy and the prediction that it's going to disappear in my/your lifetime. What, exactly, is privacy? How private is private? And how private do you want to be? Privacy, according to my apps dictionary, not OED but helpful, is "the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people, e.g. "she returned to the privacy of her own home"; "the state of being free from public attention, e.g. "a law to restrict newspapers' freedom to invade people's privacy". (That last example should be amended to media not just newspapers, especially social media, as Facebook and Twitter and the like are classified.) In the privacy of your own home you are free to be a slob, lick your plate or pick your nose or perform other personal acts you'd rather not be observed doing. I don't think the general public particularly want to observe those actions, either. Is that kind of privacy going to disappear? Apparently. Surveillance cameras are everywhere now, for our "protection". Pity the people whose job it is to monitor the activity on the cameras. For every moment of possible titillation there are hours of total monotony and boredom. You couldn't pay me enough. But the public attention of the social media., celebrity in all its degrees, that's the invasion some people seek, and welcome. We all know facts and foibles about other people that never used to be public knowledge. The mother of Ferenc Molnar (the playwright) had a charm bracelet made, hung with his baby teeth; Clark Gable had bad breath; Doris Day was so slippery with body lotion that she slipped out of bed onto the floor; Margot Kidder has false teeth; Corey Monteith was a drug addict. As I say, public knowledge. Are we better for knowing these things? When does fame shrivel (or expand?) into infamy? When does celebrity get swollen into notoriety? Who steals my purse steals trash...but he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed. How private do you want to be?