Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Thinking about sharing about thinking about sharing

I've been thinking about sharing with others today but I'm not sure how to interpret the advice I received from a usually reliable source: a fortune cookie. Everyone else at the table tonight recieved fairly uplifting fortunes like "Your talents are appreciated" or "You will succeed in many endeavors," but mine was more ambiguous: "Think before sharing with others." Okay, I'm thinking, but does this mean I should think first and then share or just think and not share at all?

I think I'll think about sharing what one of my colleagues said yesterday in the faculty lounge when, in response to my offer to show him the picture of my garage that appeared on my blog, he said, "So you're one of those people who expose their entire lives on the web." Well, no, I hope I'm not one of those people, although I admit that I have exposed some of the webs that complicate my life (read about it here, here, or here). Down in the damp cellar I have a dusty foot-locker stuffed so full of miscellaneous fragments of my life that I have to sit on the lid to make it shut, but every once in a while an especially persistent piece forces its way out into the light of common day. (Who can identify the source of that lovely phrase? Don't fail me, JM!)

Since I try very hard to keep those unruly fragments of my life under wraps, it's a bit disconcerting to be reviled for exposing myself. Please, people: I'm biting holes in my tongue to avoid exposing my entire life on the web! You should see how much I'm not even thinking about sharing, or thinking about not sharing, or whatever! If anyone needs to think about not sharing, it's whoever wrote that fortune cookie!

That's what I'm thinking about sharing today, but after receiving such a pointed warning, I think I'll think about not sharing it after all.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You have a spider in your van? The van I have been in, and while in it I have on occasion not paid attention to whether or not something was going to hop on my neck? THAT you should have shared earlier. jb