About Face(book)

For years my on-line presence had been this little vanity press... a place to talk about my attempts at home improvement, insights into myself, the people around me, and life in general. Occasionally I'd be blessed enough to be mauled by a barber or fall asleep in class or choke on horseradish and I'd have some instant humorous banter to pass along.

And I would go on and on wondering just who this virtual publication was for... me, future me, posterity, children, parents, readers. Because, as any reader of this space knows, my blog evolved into a purpose -- a circuitous way to write everyday letters to some special people in my life who aren't here anymore. And, of course, I thought that's what a blog should be, and when I couldn't do that here anymore, this place became more than a little stuffy. Overbearing, really.

And then my friends pulled me into facebook. Yeah... go figure. Facebook.. Den of six degrees of freedom. Death by a thousand application requests. But, useful to see how a few dozen people are doing every few hours. So I put a few pictures up, wrote on some walls, reconnected with a few people from college...

And that's when I had my about face (book). I had another avenue for on-line self-expression, one unencumbered with a weighty past. I'd thought long and hard about starting a new blog... picking up shop and hanging my pseudo-anonymous literary shingle on some other ethereal block. Maybe I just needed a long break because I'm typing this blog for the first time in a long time without feeling melancholy.

So, I suppose, it's true. Time can heal lots of things, even the fear of moving on.