Today is May 13.

Earlier today, I saw someone write the date on something, and he wrote May 12.

Later in the day, I saw someone write May 14.

I’m too lazy to come up with a punch line to all this right now. I thought of “never put off until tomorrow what you can write today,” but that’s just not funny.

So I’ll leave it up to you.

Please leave any potential punch lines in the comments.

If nobody leaves anything, I will feel really lame.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about blogs and openness and self-disclosure, and whether it’s good or bad. Things have been percolating inside my head.

I finally saw Pottymouth on Friday night, and Andy was brilliant.

I remember talking with Andy once about his show. I remember he told me that my blog entries kind of reminded him of the things he talked about on stage. This was back when I used to write more openly here about romance and sex.

I thought about his comparison again while watching Pottymouth on Friday night. I thought about how brave Andy must be to stand onstage in front of a crowd of people, describing his sex life in detail, making fun of himself, and so forth. I think he has a day job, too; what if his co-workers saw his show? What would they think?

Or what about potential romantic interests? What effect could such public openness — and not just as to romance and sex, but also as to thoughts and emotions — have on those people?

I wrote this in an old blog entry:

Why am I writing about all of this here? Could this possibly make anyone think any better of me? I’ve realized that one of my goals in keeping a blog has been to make connections with other people, and I’ve met some great folks… But…

Is it possible to know too much about a person? Subconsciously, I think I’ve hoped that my blog would bring a love interest into my life. Just be honest and truthful about myself and people will be all touched and moved and impressed by my honesty and self-awareness, won’t they. But how could someone love me after seeing all my mangled up, chaotic insides? Is detailing all my neuroses just a stupid, stupid idea? I mean, what the hell am I thinking?

Can blogs lead to romance? I still don’t know. I do think that blogs can fuck up the process of getting to know someone, or even of just communicating with someone. This is so funny because it’s true. When I stopped blogging last year, someone said to me, “How am I going to know what’s going on in your life from now on?” And I responded, “I guess you’ll actually have to ask.”

A blog lets you spy on someone’s life, even that of someone you know, without actually interacting with that someone. It works the other way, too; it lets you speak to a person without actually speaking TO the person.

A blog can bring people into your world, but maybe only so much.

And openly discussing your life can take away the fun of sharing. If everyone is special enough to know about the mysterious details of your life, then nobody is special enough. And someone’s got to be. I think.

These are all reasons why I haven’t been blogging as openly as I used to. It’s hard, because I’m a compulsive self-expresser; I process things through writing about them and talking about them. Also, it’s fun and cathartic.

I’d love to write more openly here. Sometimes I really really want to.

But I’m not so certain anymore that such openness can bring all the amazing benefits I used to think or wish it could.

I hate it when this happens.
—–