Coming out?

I’m trying to figure it out.  This blog is anonymous and a great place for me to  throw ideas up against the wall and see if they stick.  Call it an online thinking space if you will.  I don’t even post most of the updates I write.

As I mentioned before, I grew up in a very conservative family.  Politically I tend to be moderate and socially I am comparatively conservative in behavior compared with peers.  I don’t smoke, I do love pipes, but can’t put up with the massive headaches I get from any tobacco products.  I do drink, probably too much when stressed.  Because of some of the social awkwardness I struggled with due to my homeschool background, drinking was an easy way for me to take the edge off in situations where I otherwise struggled to interact.

Dating wise, my relationships were never anything to write home about about, again due to my social awkwardness.  Dating was a bad word in the circles I grew up in.

The experience related to these “vices” as they would be considered by my family, are part of my story and my character, for the good and bad of it.  Rarely has an interesting novel been written about people who never miss a church service, who live perfect structured lives, unless it’s in contrast to another character or something which gives the story flavor.  The perfect person on paper is about as tasteful as eating cardboard and equally as stiff.

I have a travel blog among my various sites and endeavors which is widely followed in my circle of acquaintance.  I would really like to appeal to the greater blogosphere, and do that I need stories with character, interest, the occaisonal drunken escapade, some on the road romance and the like.  So do I “come out of the closet” (nothing to do with my sexuality) so to speak and let it all out there, letting the family fallout land where it may? I really want to, however I deeply value my family relationships.

Many of the bloggers I’ve known who have “let it all hang out” seem to have estranged relations with their parents and while I doubt their blog was the cause, I imagine that the revelation of who they "really" are contributed to the parental fallout. 

So do I start an anonymous travel blog?  I wonder if I could inject enough of myself into it make it interesting enough to gather a following.  While my misadventures tend to be mild I’ve still had and continue having the wonderful experiences necessary to make great travel tales.

It may be hard to understand for those who haven’t grown up in my style family, but it’s an internal struggle that takes up quite a bit of my mind lately.  As I look for more ways to fuel my traveling addiction, writing seems to be a great supplement, but I’ll have to overcome these foibles first.

 - The Reflected Man