…and sadly, having to write a disclaimer that I really never thought I’d have to write.
When I actively started using Facebook to keep in touch or get in touch with friends back in the US, I also decided to use the WordPress function that publishes my new blog posts to Facebook as well. I thought that it might be interesting, not only to see if my traffic increased, but also to see if any of my friends would read it.
And it worked on both fronts.
My traffic shot up about 50% and I’ve had more than one message to me via Facebook from some friends who enjoy reading what I write.
Amazingly, I remain free of trolls or nasty comments, so I’ve never had to bother with any sort of real disclaimer.
However, there have been occasions where Piet feels that rather than talk to him when I’m upset, I blog and talk to my readers. While I see the validity of his concern, I have told him that I often sort my thoughts better when I sit and write about it than when I’m under his scrutiny, feeling like a wreck and searching for the reason I’m upset or anxious, only to come up with a tangled mess of thoughts that I just can’t pick through coherently. Not only that, but when I first started keeping a regular blog, almost 5 years ago, it was Piet who encouraged me the most to keep writing during my idle periods.
There have also been occasions where family members or friends of Piet have read my posts and emailed him out of concern, confusion or offense, which causes him stress and has made me question the continuation of blogging. Due to this I avoided adding his family to my Facebook. It simply wasn’t worth the tension that it occasionally caused between us. However, I never avoided adding some of his friends to Facebook because I occasionally socialize with them too and it’s handy to communicate about getting together via Facebook.
After my last post and a huge blowout between Piet and I, it came to my attention that a friend of his felt offense at what I’d written. I’m not quite sure why that is. I’m not quite sure why his family and friends seem to take offense at my written thoughts. I have yet to receive anything but support from the people I know in the U.S. that read my blog and have been reading my blog for years.
As a result, I decided to temporarily make my blog private until I could figure out if I even ought to keep blogging at all, and if so, what course of action I should take if I decided to keep writing here.
I haven’t figured out a way to password protect or block my blog from a hand selected list of people via WordPress. If anyone knows how to do that, I’d appreciate if you could tell me.
I have figured out how to keep my blog updates from showing up on certain people’s Facebook. So that’s what I’ve decided to do for now.
To all of you who come and read and stay interested in my digital scribbling, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I hope to keep seeing you around.
To those of you who sent me messages telling me you enjoy my writing or can relate to my feelings or asking my why my blog was private because you still want to read it, you all have basically convinced me to keep writing here.
To those of you who have read this blog and taken issue with it, I recommend that you stop reading. If all has gone well, you should not see my blog posts on your Facebook. You shouldn’t know if I’m updating unless you have chosen to check on this blog directly. If that is the case and you don’t like what you’re reading my answer to you is that you should stop reading.
This blog is my outlet for everything. It is my means of expressing my happiness, grief, reflection, sadness, day to day activities, my hopes and fears.
I am as candid as I can comfortably be and as open as I can be without using the names of anyone else. I try to keep everyone anonymous and references as vague as I can while also telling my readers how I feel.
This is my blog. It is important to some other people, but first and foremost, it is important to me. If you don’t like what I’m saying, just look in the upper right hand corner of your browser. See that little red “x”?
Click it.
A Patchwork of Daydreams 
Kudos on your choices! Really enjoy your cultural introspections and photos. Keep up the writing – for many of us, it is the only glimpse of Belgian life we will have…and getting to know you is a bonus.
you do tend to express your feelings stronger than I’d ever do online…but that’s who you are and that’s your choice and you are totally right: it’s your blog , you get to choose how you use it. I really wonder what could have been so offensive in the last post.
anyway….feedreader still works, so I’ll keep on popping by ;). I hope you still have this outlet for your feelings. Being an expat can be quite difficult and a blog is a good way to stay in touch and share feelings & thoughts so I hope you don’t loose it.
Thank you for this post and thank you for writing about what you feel, do and experience in life. I admire your openness and your strength as well as I understand the need to sit down and put these thousand different and contradicting thoughts on paper to sort them instead of getting overwhelmed by them.
It’s your blog; it has to feel right to you and the ones who are closest.
Good for you!
Ive been called to account too. By my dad’s 3rd wife. My mom says stuff, but half the stuff I say is to get her goat, and some of the other family thinks I’m weird and outrageous, and I think Why did I ever open that can of worms in the first place? I edit myself a little now. But I’m also enough of a person that is going to step in the doo-poo no matter what. You can’t please everyone. Bring on the hate mail!
You know your a great writer, you posts on your job are always so hilarious, and your life is interesting, to this person who has never been away from home for more than 3 weeks. So I am glad your not goin’ private, because I would have come back and thought, “It was that last Obama comment, wasn’t it! Darn it!”
Here, hear! I too think you should and need to keep writing just the way you do…it is YOUR voice and you have not been offensive in any way. People need to take a chill pill and get over themselves…or better yet, just TRY to put themselves in your shoes for one day….most people would turn into screaming meemees and head right for the bottle of Jeneveer or prozac! Keep writing!