I needed this

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or it is only in my head, but there seems to be a certain lack of interest going about Blogsville. Maybe it’s seasonal? I know that I’ve been busy, too busy to blog or too lazy to blog as often as I used to. Maybe I’m getting over my “blogging buzz”? Hum. I wonder.

Last week, while trying to catch up of some of your blogs, I came across two that were saying their goodbyes. I was a bit surprised since both of them seemed to have their regulars and quite a few of them. One of the first blog I read was Nikki’s. I liked her sarcasm and the fact that she called things as she saw them. She had a twisted sense of humour and there was something real about her that I truly enjoyed. She called it quit this past week. I will miss her.

The other gal who decided to move out of Blogsville was Dirty Birdie. She was also a straight shooter that I enjoyed. She had a different style, opinionated and not afraid to speak up. In her last message she mentioned that only a few people, in her life, knew about her blog and how she couldn’t bring herself to tell them, etc.

Which made me think of auto-censorship. How many of us are being “careful” of what and how we say things, not to offend our readers. Are we all hook to our site meters? I know I am – I’m being honest here. I used to check it daily, now once a week I do check my numbers more than who and how people get here. It’s a weird addiction.

A while back I was concerned by the fact that I had offended a reader (or more, who knows, people don’t say those thing), I didn’t want to lose any readers. The few that I have I want to keep! I even went as far as to ask one directly. I know it’s sad. I guess I needed a friend that day… I think what bothered me, was the “not knowing” part. I’m straightforward, and I’ve realised that not every body is. I’m growing up (slowly, but surely). I also realised that just like my own, our interests change, what we liked a while back can become something we don’t enjoy so much anymore. Things do change. And then there’s this “politically correctness” that really gets to me!

I hate today’s society for that one. We can no longer say anything without somebody, somewhere, getting offended. It’s unreal! We cannot call things by their names without being looked at as if we are a bigot, or a racist, or whatever else. A blind person is no longer blind, but “visually challenged” – ok, but he/she still can’t see. Black people are coloured. But black is a colour. Or is it not? I understand about not using the “n” term, that’s fine, but black? What’s offensive about that?

I know that this can be construed as a very touchy subject, but with everything going on in the world, it makes me wonder if, after all, we are not just looking for reason to fight and create wars among ourselves, instead of trying to get along. I may sound like an old lady who’s reminiscing, but when I was a teen things did seem simpler… I had black friends, not “African-American”, they were from Haiti and Trinidad. I’m not “European-Canadian”, I’m a white, French Canadian woman who I guess needed to vent a little!