Revealing too much.
Sometimes when we touch…
The honesty is too much. (I hated that song.) Anyway - with all the blogs, Youtube, Facebook, and religious TV shows, many of us tend to reveal way too much about ourselves. I’ve written revealing posts about myself, although I eventually take most of them down because I realize they are imprudent and indiscreet - and I want everyone to like me.
I have sometimes referred to significant events involving my conversion in a few posts, yet I’ve never written an entire story on it. Mainly because I’m no saint. Conversion stories can mislead people into believing the convert should be a little better for the experience, after returning to the practice of the faith that is. A conversion is just a start - not the finished project. For me, the best conversion stories are about dead people - people like Matt Talbot, converted, lived like a saint, died. Now that’s a story worth telling.
Today people reveal far too much about their personal life. Such as the recent case of the young, everyone-knew-he-was-gay-anyway priest who came out during Mass last weekend. First, it was so inappropriate to do it during Mass - see, that is where homilies can go off the deep end - not that it wasn’t interesting mind you. But Fr. Hotstuff politicized the Mass, and told everyone more than anyone needs to know about his private life, and scandalized people in the process. You know - if a guy is a celibate, living chastely, why does he have to announce his sexual preference? Isn’t he supposed to be vowed to ED for the rest of his life anyway?
Then there is Fr. Francis and the EWTN announcement. Too much information. Did we need to be told he fell in love with a widow? (How many of us started to wonder if the widow was Courtney Love? See, we don’t have to go there.) Although, maybe all the details were revealed to forestall a bigger scandal. Since it was made public, I posted about it - when you make a public statement, you are asking for a public discussion - and it isn’t always going to be praise.
Something for bloggers to think about when they write their tell-all posts.
BTW - I’m still sick and probably dying from my cold. But don’t worry. :)
November 6th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Good comments. (But maybe it was Betty White & not Courtney Love).
November 6th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
I know exactly what you mean about the way too much information blogposts. Sometimes I literally cringe for the person when I read such posts.
Never happens to me when I read your stuff, though — teehee
November 6th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Oh, I also meant to say:
Get well soon, Terry!! I’ll keep you in my prayers for a speedy recovery.
Don’t forget to drink lots of hot chicken soup and plenty of other liquids!!
lotsa love and prayers,
~Georgette
November 6th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
You are so funny —the dying part.
I wish the story of Matt Talbot could be promoted.
November 6th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Get better soon!
I do talk about personal things on my blog, but nothing earth-shattering or scandalous. I’m just not that interesting ;} And, I don’t find your personal stories to be too revealing. Maybe I’m just a jaded Gen X’er.
November 6th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Thanks everyone. No, Monica - I’m talking about too much information - most blogs talk about personal stuff - I wonder if I said too much here? LOL!
November 6th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
It forestalls blackmail and corrects false gossip when everyone hears the same story at the same time, though.
November 6th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Jeannette - that is very true.
November 6th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Sorry to pick on you, Unk, but your post happened to be handy to use as an example.
It always amazes me when I write some outraged screed that I would love to see published in the next days local yellow journal how many words I can elminate and still get my message across.
I’ve had a few published, sometimes even in our archdiocesan yellow journal that is a weekly.
They do censor some of my more intemperate comments, though.
November 6th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Anonoymous:
I couldn’t print your comment due to incivility, but I’m sorry you were offended. ED stands for Erectile Dysfunction.
November 6th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Terry,
Equally it could be said that some bloggers do not resonate with their readers on a personal level….perhaps they avoid such personal interaction as a precautionary measure agains loonies…or perhaps they are afraid of exhibiting anything but the most5 *appropriate* or *personable* cyber demeanour …I would propose that a blogger who tends to be too effusive is no more cloying or tiresome than one who plays the fool or who fails to enable the reader to make a connection on all but the most superficicial of levels.
What it comes down to is this, ‘what do you want out of your blogging?’
If you want to relaly get to know people and let them into your life, then allowing blogfriendship to cross the lines of cyber friendship into real time friendship is fascilitated by sharing personal *stuff*.
It doesn’t have to be to any one elses taste, because suych a blogger writes predominatly for his/her ‘readers’, whoever they may be.
For example, I know that when I visit your blog I can get my fill of quirky and off the wall! When you visiti me you’ll find that I moan a lot and regurgitate posts about how blogging is the bane of my life.
November 6th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Gosh, I knew I should have stayed in bed….I apologise profusely for the typo’s…I’m going back to bed now.
November 6th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Terry, you are hilarious. Get well soon.
November 6th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Dear Terry,
I understand what you mean. Prudence requires us to do some things we might not otherwise do in person. College admissions officers and employers do examine various sites to see if their candidates are doing things they ought not to and are willing to rescind admission/not hire on the basis of what they find.
Cf. http://www.udayton.edu/News/Article/?contentId=2183
November 6th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
I’ll try to do better, Terry.
November 6th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Since I am a bit older, when I grew up you did not, ever, run around spilling your guts.
It reminds me of the lady who, during the prayers of the faithful, prayed for her drug addicted son who was “living in sin”, and a bunch of other blah, blah. Now, that was too much information.
November 6th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Why would you choose the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to devulge your sexual preferences? That was totally inappropriate–nobody needed to know.
However, with Father Francis of EWTN since we are his viewing audience and he left, it was right to tell us where and why he left–in just enough detail and not too much. Otherwise we would always wonder what happened.
We do bond with our Priests–we have a relationship with them–we know them from watching them on television. When they leave–they are part of us, and knowing why they left helps us to cope with the losses.
Priests are one of our own–we are all connected–we are all one body in Christ–when one part hurts we all hurt. And, as Father Francis is a Priest–we pray for his soul–knowing about his troubles helps us to assist him with our prayers.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:22 am
What I like about Facebook is that your profile can be viewed only by those you invite to see it. I put stuff on there that I would never put on my blog. My husband asked me to be very careful about what family photos and information, etc. that I share on my blog, and so I am. I realize that 10,000 visits/16,000 hits a month is not huge as blogs go, but still, that is a lot of unknown people; I do not know exactly WHO is coming to the blog. So I keep family stuff to a minimum.
November 7th, 2007 at 10:19 am
I agree that you can give too much information but more particularly when it causes scandal.I was sad and surprised when I read about Father Francis Mary. But, I was equally surprised that EWTN announced his reason for leaving on Life on the Rock (that they announced it on TV surprised me but especially that they announced it on a show for teenagers-I understand it was his show)surprised me even more.
Of course they are really prayerful at EWTN and perhaps with all of the horrible scandals in the Church they might have been afraid that people would have speculated things that were not true if they weren’t up front about his real reasons for leaving.
By the way, I’m really impressed with your statistics. 13 hits from Vatican City - do you ever wonder if the Pope has seen your blog. (Just kidding I would imagine that he doesn’t use the internet.)Probably some bored clerk who should have been getting work done…but you never know.