Why I Don’t Blog Naked

This post is unlikely to be of much interest to anyone but me; however, these are some thoughts I’ve been thinking, and I decided to write. This weekend marks 6 months that I have been a blogger. When I started doing this, it was for two reasons: 1) I wanted a reason to practice writing, to find out if anybody would care to read anything I’d have to say, and 2) Pure recreation, silliness, unwinding, stress-relief, etc. Since I began, I have discovered other motivations and inspirations, but these two remain the most important. I never intended to blog for therapy, or for self-discovery, or to send anyone a message, or any such thing.

I read and enjoy a lot of other blogs. Sometimes I read someone who does what I call “naked blogging.” People who seem to be expressing their truest, most vulnerable selves here in blogworld. And I try to be appropriately reverent; it is a sacred thing when a human being risks showing other human beings who he or she really is. As some of you have commented, and more of you have probably noticed, I don’t blog naked. Sometimes, rarely, but sometimes, I wish I did. But I don’t, and I won’t. Sometimes I email naked, in response to a naked post. Or I even comment naked. But I don’t usually do a whole naked post. Here’s why I don’t blog naked:

1) Directly to my right as I sit at my computer, is a window.

OK, seriously,
2) I am a very private person. I have quite a lot of friends, a lot of family, and only Jif and maybe one or two girlfriends know most everything about me. Only God knows absolutely everything. In spite of the volume of words that come out here, in realworld, I listen much more than I talk. It is simply not my way, not my temperament to tell all here. And as I said, it was never my goal. This is where I am as goofy as I can be, without getting my professional license revoked.

3)Here is the biggest reason why I don’t blog naked. It’s the reason that I wished I could blog for the longest time before I ever took the plunge. I thought that a therapist can’t, shouldn’t, have a personal blog. Sometimes I still think that, and I try to walk a very fine line between letting the world see some genuine parts of me, and not letting current or future clients see anything that could impact negatively on their treatment.

Some of the therapy that I do is cognitive and behavioral. In that setting, and with doing marital counseling, the therapist is sort of like a coach or a consultant. In that type of counseling, it’s OK for the therapist to reveal some of her personal experiences. Not a lot, but some. Sometimes it is genuinely helpful to a client to know that the therapist has dealt with something similar to what they are dealing with. That’s the criteria for when I reveal something personal: is it therapeutic to say this thing to this person at this time?

This is a very small world. Clients have discovered this blog, via various avenues. Only a couple of them, but still. And that’s OK. I could have been much more anonymous on here than I have. I took some calculated risks, but have not revealed anything that I believe could affect anyone negatively. However, because I don’t have any way of knowing who will be reading here, I have to, on some level, assume that clients will read. So everything that I write must go through that filter. It gets even more important for those clients with whom I use more “psychodynamic” kinds of treatment. This is longer term therapy, relies very heavily upon the relationship between the therapist and client that is built over time. One of the tools of this therapy is a phenomenon called “transference.” Briefly (and volumes have been written about this phenomenon), this is when the client transfers onto the therapist thoughts, feelings, etc., that originally would have been directed toward another significant person in the client’s life. Mother, grandmother, brother, ex-wife, perpetrator, whatever. Whomever that client may have unfinished business with. In order for this tool of therapy to be effective, the therapist has to present herself as pretty much a blank screen. The reality of her history, her personality, etc., can’t get in the way. In the process of working through the transference, some healing, some recovery takes place. Perspective gradually shifts to the here-and-now, and the unfinished business is more finished.

If I blogged naked, I couldn’t be a blank screen for those people who need that type of therapy, and their treatment would be compromised. It’s not OK for me to make that compromise so that I can have a richer blogging experience. And that’s OK with me. This experience is plenty rich as it is.

Another risk if I revealed my own struggles in the way that the naked bloggers do, is that clients could become concerned about me. I find that most people who avail themselves of therapy are sensitive, compassionate people who could easily become concerned for their therapist if they knew she was having a tough time. That’s not fair to those clients. The time and money that they spend with me is all about them; I’ll get my own attention somewhere else.

The personal things that I do reveal here have to do mostly with my humor and my faith. These two components are so much a part of me that I couldn’t hide them in real world if I tried. That’s why you get the goofy and you get the Sunday Post.

I continue to wrestle with where the boundaries are here. I have read other therapist bloggers who reveal much more than I would be comfortable with. I don’t judge them for that; I just have to do what I think is best for me and mine. And I’m sure there are still other therapists who believe as I once did, that we shouldn’t have personal blogs at all. I will never go completely naked here; but I am increasingly feeling led to blog some experiences that I’ve had that I believe could actually be of benefit to readers. Even client readers. I’m still working that out. Stay tuned. And if you’ve read this far, aren’t you a loyal blogfriend? Thank you for that 🙂

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I Need an Alibi!

UPDATE: I was shocked and delighted (mostly delighted) that one of the “principals” from my original “Central 17” post popped in and commented. Rather than direct you back there, I have copied her comment here, and I’ll reply here:

Anonymous said…

This is the KT mentioned in this blog post. I’m still laughing about this ancient episode in my high school past. I always regretted not being involved. How flattering to be described as having good sense and being cool at the same time. Some other things of interest: The Beaver Creek school was torn down, so hopefully all the Beavers can finally put this behind them (ha). I live about 150 feet above the famous fart-smeller road inscription. I think of it often when I drive that road. I think Susie and I should seriously think about a book/screenplay regarding this and other episodes from our hillbilly past. Has Susie posted anything about her foray into the world of beauty pageants? Just an idea for ya, doll!

12:36 PM

KT, I am so tickled to see you here. If only we had known they were going to tear down the school anyhow, we could have saved all that hard-earned money. I have not posted, and I may never post, anything about pageants. There’s blogworld and there’s realworld, but pageantworld is a whole ‘nother Oprah! That was too horrifying and traumatic a world to share here, without having gotten considerable therapy. I mean, even more than I’ve had! So seriously, is the “fart-smeller” thing still on the road? Is it like a landmark, “I live in the third house on the left after you drive over ‘fart-smeller’?” I like how you called it an “inscription.” That sounds so much nicer than grafitti. I’ll email you. Study hard!

I now return you to your regularly scheduled post. Just wanted you to “meet” my friend “KT.”

I have a bit of a situation, and I need your help. Over the weekend, there may or may not have been a mini-reunion of the “Central 17.” We might possibly have met in South Dakota to reminisce, see the sights, compare art supplies. Hypothetically speaking, you understand.

Then this morning, I received a photograph in a plain brown email. I fear that I am being blackmailed. I need to ask that you all vouch for my whereabouts over the weekend. If anyone, like, say, a small town Southern sheriff, asks about me, please tell him that I was right here, giving y’all flowers and scripture verses. Please? Thank you. Oh, and if you want to embellish my alibi to make it more convincing, by all means, go for it.

I’ve never seen these guys before in my life! Well, maybe once . . .

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Sunday Post ~ Try looking at things differently…

Sunday Post ~ Try looking at things differently.

Ephesians 1:18

file under: &Sunday Post

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Biscuit Friday ~ Fine Dining

Do you MIND? I’m trying to eat, here.

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My Night of Crime

This post is probably rated R, for language and for allusions to erotic art (NOT).

The item that attracted the most attention from my last “10 Things About Me” post, was the fact that I almost didn’t get my high school diploma, on account of my criminal behavior. So I thought I’d tell the story . . .

It was nearing the end of senior year, at Central High (I’m not kidding), and there was a party. You must remember, my senior year is a lot more likely to show up on the History Channel than most of your senior years, so it’s a bit hard for me to remember details, but I will try. It was at someone’s parents’ cabin in the woods, as I recall. And it was my first and probably last “wet T-shirt” contest. I remember claiming, with some conviction, that I was the winner. This was based on the very reasonable criteria that my T-shirt was the wettest. I remember something like hide-and-seek-and-sneakuponpeople-and-throwapotofwateronthem! That was fun, I don’t care who you are.

A couple of interesting things about this party. There were maybe 20 people there; I later learned that the group of us under police investigation was called the “Central 17” (it’s a wonder folk songs haven’t been written). There was, to my recollection, no alcohol or drugs at this party. And almost to a one, we were the good kids. The kids who had never given parents or teachers a moment’s trouble. We were about to try to make up for lost time.

One of the boys, Jon, with the bright red hair, freckles and braces, was the mastermind. Even as I write that, I know I should have seen trouble coming. Jon obtained what he called “water-based paint,” with which we were to go around the county painting insults and the like on the schools of Central’s archrivals. Did I mention that we mostly were athlete, cheerleader, pep club, Student Council types? Yea. Did I mention that I drove my brother’s van throughout much of high school? Yea. The gold one with the tinted windows, the padded floor and shag carpeting in the back, that would soon become known as the getaway car with the incriminating paint on the shag carpeting on the padded floor in the back.

Jon told us that “water-based” meant that the paint would be removed from any surface with a little soap and water. So that in the unlikely event we were to get caught, the worst that could happen was that we’d have to hose down the buildings we painted on.

After the wet and wild party, we loaded into our various vehicles and set out to the school near Horse Creek. They had recently built a huge, tremendously expensive enclosed pool. That enclosure looked to us like a blank canvas, baby. But there were people, adult-type people, hanging around. That was a stroke of luck for us. Had we ruined that new pool, we would have been up worse than Horse Creek. We proceeded to our next target, Beaver Creek. I’m not kidding. Our athletic rivals were the fighting Beavers of Beaver Creek High School. Could you BLAME us for wanting to vandalize their buck-toothed, wapping-tailed butts? (No offense, Bucky.)

We get there, and we divide up paint, brushes, etc., and set about painting things and stuff on the brick exterior of the school. What did we paint? Well, we painted words. Big words. No, not “impressive vocabulary” type big words, I mean big as in large size from top to bottom and side to side. No, the words themselves often consisted of only four letters. Bad words. That’s what good Hillbillian kids paint on the walls the night they finally go ape-shit wild.

When we finished, we ran like wild, crazy savages through the field, laughing and yelling. I remember my best buddy running along side me, and we caught each other’s eye just after we both noticed another classmate, Johnny, who wanted to be a mercenary when he grew up, thrashing wildly through the weeds with a machete as he whooped war whoops. In my mind, the look that my friend and I exchanged said these things: 1) Can you believe how exciting this is? 2 )Can you believe how stupid this is? And 3) Johnny is even crazier than we suspected. (If you went to Central with me, and you’re reading this, did Johnny N. become a paid assassin?)

After we finished the painting, some kids went home. Some of us went back to the cabin first, to enjoy being scared to death together. I think all of us were smart enough to know how incredibly stupid we were. Adrenalin and adolescent group-think are a powerful combination.

The next morning, I surveyed my van. Van-Go, it was called. If anyone went looking for evidence, I was so busted. There was paint everywhere. I got some soapy water and went to work. OH. SHIT. That paint wasn’t going anywhere. I went to the home of one of my good friends (hey, KT!) who had not been in on the, um, project. She was, and is, a woman of good sense. But still cool; very cool. I was too embarrassed, in the cold light of a May day, to confess to her. But I did tell her something like, “I heard some kids painted stuff all over Beaver Creek High School last night” . . . and I went on to describe some of the things that I had “heard” were painted there, including a crude euphemism for the female genitalia. Here, the conversation took a turn for the weird:

K: What color did they use?
S: I think white . . .
K: How big was it?
S: Oh, ’bout 2, maybe 3 feet high.

KT ponders this, then . . .

K: What was the angle . . .
S: What?
K: I mean, did they show the legs, or . . .
S: What are you talking about?
K: The %u&&y.
S: NO! Not an actual %u&&y!!!! Just the WORD, %u&&y!
K: Oh. I thought you meant they drew one.

I don’t even know if this conversation was funny to me then, but it certainly is, now. The truth is, for better or worse, neither the males nor the females in that troupe had enough up close and personal knowledge of anyone’s %u&&y to render it three feet tall on brick!

The days that followed were tense. Seventeen teenagers cannot keep a secret. Especially when one of them is driving around in a paint-splattered van. And I just remembered, we had even gone to the trouble of painting something on the road in front of our own school, to throw The Man off our trail. That graffiti was a bit milder; as I recall, it said “[Assistant Prinicipal] is a fine feller; but [Principal] is a fart-smeller!” What can I say, we were new to being criminals.

The Sheriff and deputies made several visits to the school. I think it was the new girl in the group who cracked first, but I don’t know for sure. I know at some point we were all hauled in, individually, then in small groups, and shown photographs of the carnage. A giant brick %u&&y in a photograph proffered by an officer of the law in the daytime looks SO MUCH more sinister than it does in person in the nighttime. Over a period of several days, we were all busted.

The principal said that we could not attend the graduation ceremony. A number of the best students and athletes in our class were among this “branded” group. Some teachers and some students were openly hostile toward us. We had “shamed” the school. I felt then pretty much the same way I feel now: I could have made a list of students AND teachers who had, indeed, shamed the school; and none of us %u&&y-painters would have been on it. I felt that there was tremendous over-reaction. Many threats were made, to our freedom, our finances, our scholarships, our acceptances to the colleges we were preparing to attend. In the end, no formal charges were filed, and at the very last minute, after we’d already arranged a separate diploma-dispensing at a local church, by a forgiving minister, they said we could graduate. Not everyone was happy. I was relieved. Our punishment was that we had to pay restitution. We had to pay to have Beaver Creek sandblasted, repaired, etc. This was, of course, fair. It came to a few hundred dollars for each of us. For some kids present, or rather, for their parents, that was pocket change. For some, it was a fortune. Mine was paid by me, not my parents, and it was, indeed, a fortune.

Oh, and we had to go to Beaver Creek and make a sincere, public apology. To the entire student body, faculty and staff. At an assembly. On the stage. We decided to have one spokesperson to deliver our heartfelt apology, while the rest of us sat in a row behind her and looked appropriately remorseful. Now, on this memory, I have not compared notes with anyone, but here is what I recall. The spokesperson was Tammy, A-student, future surgeon, cheerleader, always dressed-to-kill Tammy. And she wore an extremely low-cut dress, displaying cleavage that none of us, to my knowledge, had ever seen before. This was in the day before Miracles and Wonders (I’m talking bras here), and I don’t know how she came up with that (literally), but I was most impressed. There was cleavage; there was red lipstick; and maybe I have embellished this moment in memory, but I swear I think she wore a big ol’ hat, too. Now, the accessory that I am certain I recall accurately, and the one that I thought completed the “F-you” tone of the ensemble, was the pair of hickies on her neck. Many people had those things, back in the day; but you covered them up, for heaven’s sake, you wore a turtleneck, or some makeup or something. That is, unless you were Tammy, spokesperson for the Central 17, making a formal apology to the Beaver Creek Beavers. THAT was some STYLE.

The Beavers did not appreciate our efforts. I believe we were booed. Booed by the Beavers, as we sat on their stage. Later that day, as I sold char-broiled burgers in Hardee’s, two Beaver Creek athletes appeared in my line. I either found this funny, or I was nervous about it, because by the time they got to me I was giggling. Then they started laughing, too. One of them said, “You’re not a bit sorry.” I told them it was nothing personal, that we meant them no harm, it was a joke that ended up much worse and more expensive than we’d intended. They said it was funny, and they would have done the same thing to our school if they’d thought of it. Free fries for you, Beavers!

The 25th class reunion was a couple of years ago, and although I did not attend, I understand that this incident was a topic of lively discussion. I was told that some were very happy to have been in on it; some thought it among the worst experiences of their lives. For me, it was certainly memorable. It was not among the worst experiences of my life.

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I BUCKY FOUR-EYES I do believe she has fixed…

I

BUCKY FOUR-EYES

I do believe she has fixed my blog. I can’t tell you how she did it, because if we told you, we’d have to kill you. But now, at least for this moment, I can save drafts, and write long posts, and even empty the little bitty trashcans. Thank you, Bucky 🙂

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Celebrating the Genteel Art of Letter-Writing

Kitty said…

Dear Blogger,

My only happiness in life is reading this blog. If you do not help my friend Susie soon, I will be forced to hack into your datacenter and post close up pics of my cellulite on your blogger toolbar. Flag this you bitches.

Oh ya, and f**k google too.

That is all.

Love,

Kitty

10:20 PM

Who needs my posts when you have my commenters? What? Oh, yea, without posts I don’t get any comments. Doh!

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Getting What I Pay For

I can’t post again until 1) Blogger repair comes to the rescue; or 2) I get huge amounts of extra time dropped in my lap. I cannot save any drafts in blogger. That feature just is not available to me anymore. I did download the blogger for Word and tried to publish a story directly from there, but it shows up with so much garbage, so many bizarre symbols in the text, that it’s almost unreadable. And what’s worse, those symbols don’t show up in html, just when I actually publish it on the blog, so I can’t even go in and clean it up efficiently. For the longer stories that you know I like to write, and some of you hate to read, I need to be able to save a draft while I’m working on them, and to do a little editing. I HOPE IT GETS FIXED SOON. End of whine. I’ll write again when I can.

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Sunday Post ~ "…let us not love with words……

Sunday Post ~ “…let us not love with words…but with actions…”

I John 3:16-20

file under: &Sunday Post

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I Thank Y’all Kindly for Coming

I appreciate your attendance at this blogger pity party. Or this “blogger is pitiful” party. I’ll keep sentences short and sweet, and try to offer you a nice spread in return for your kindness.

Care to wet your whistle?

I splurged; y’all are worth it!

Oh, who brought the lovely fruit? Is Plum here?

Someone has raided the garden to share with us.

Roast beast, anyone?

Eclectic? We need a refill on the chips, here, darlin’.

Let us eat cake!

Who brought these, um, carrots?

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