Why don’t I keep my thoughts to myself?

After spending a lifetime of feeling as though I’ve done exactly that I have come to the conclusion that I wasn’t put on this world with billions of other people in order to keep quiet, to not voice my opinions or to not want to share my experience with others to the best of my abilities. We are a gregarious bunch us humans, and connecting with others is exactly what inspires us and gives us the drive to continue with life. That sense of innovation and possibility that gives us purpose is embodied in our desire to collaborate and to interact with the world around us and the people who give resonance and substance to our lives. Therefore it is not in my nature, nor is it in my best interest to keep my thoughts to myself. If only it hadn’t taken me such a long time to reach that conclusion with such absolute certainty. Sometimes however, it can take a little while for the penny to drop. Some morsels of wisdom can be hard won.

Starting a new blog, or reshuffling an existing one is always an interesting enterprise, because you can never be sure how you will be received, or indeed whether you will be received at all. This for me is one of a number that I given life to in my short but fruitful blogging career. It isn’t that I haven’t made a success of the others, but I am a restless soul ever seeking new outlets for my creativity, and seeking new audiences to share it with. I am always searching for that elusive dark patch in my logic, hoping that by starting afresh I may see things in a new way, unrestricted for a short time and able to stretch my wings in new skies. I realise that if I eat monsters for breakfast, they can’t eat me. That is to say that as we establish our distinct and multifaceted personas through the various means of expression that we have at our disposal we inevitably create identities and narratives about who we are and how we wish to be received in that particular guise. Many of us have multiple guises or disguises, no matter how immutable we may believe our identities to be, we all exercise different parts of our personas depending on who we are addressing and wishing to engage with our tales. We are driven by circumstance to perform in certain ways, and we have the ability to be highly adaptable. However, the more conditions one places on one’s persona, the more restricted the self-expression becomes and any changes can be viewed as deviations, and deviance. At that point, I begin anew.

At that point, I begin new conversations (thank you JZ for planting that seed firmly in my head). Because I can. The world still turns, and is always in need of new input despite fixed notions that people may have developed about me, or anything and anyone for that matter. There is always room for new ways of looking at things, and that is what I champion above all else. “No” is never an answer, it’s just a deviation from “Yes”. So, let’s move on, move forward and see the possibilities within the gaps in our stories.

You see narratives only work through ellipsis, omission of information is what gives a story its form, it is intrinsic to the flow of a piece. Our identities are our own personal narratives, that in much the same way only take shape because of how we define ourselves, and equally how we do not. In fact the latter is probably the more pertinent statement. When we say to ourselves: “This is who I am not”, we are exercising our personal right to object and to find alternative routes for our self-expression. When our identities serve to be a restriction because of the way that others choose to interpret that, we feel stifled and the natural reaction is to either reinforce our own world view, or we find new ways to define who we are, and thus new audiences to share our story with.

This then, is me objecting and sloughing away the restrictions that have accumulated yet again like the over zealous skin growth that causes eczema. The balm of a new blog, or a new-looking blog is always soothing, satisfying that itch, as are fresh faces and fresh opinions. I know my diligence in keeping this blog refreshed and up-to-date has been a little remiss since I re-jigged things recently, and I dare say I have lost many a staunch follower along the way. Mind you, the universe has a funny way about it, nothing is ever disconnected for long, and nothing ever truly secret or undisclosed. So we shall see how things transpire shall we?

I hope to be adding my quality tuppence-worth here with more frequency.

Have a marvellous day all!

M/Ish