Alden’s recent post got me thinking.
While I never hid my true name on this site, I have recently created an alternate account where I can just write what I feel without the fear of worrying folks because writers sometimes like to EXAGERATE to EXORCISE their demons. Since this site has a tendency to be a bit of an open letter to everyone in my life, I’m overly cautious how I state things. Good training for myself as a writer, but not always as cathartic as I’d like.
Random example: I keep (and would like to continue) this site at a PG-13 level. Elsewhere, I can go to R and not fret. (Yes, sometimes typing in a few of George Carlin’s unacceptable words is fun.)
Aside from the above, I also took a little trip down memory lane.
Years ago, a good friend and I read the original Griffin and Sabine book and became obsessed with the idea that it’s easier to express true feelings to a total stranger than with the closest of friends. Having no internet at the time, (1992) we began exchanging postcards and letters under assumed names that spoke dramatically and poetically about our current plights. Being vaguely anonymous, we allowed ourselves to go over the edge about our middle class traumas in a way that would’ve felt selfish had we done it under the guise of our real names. We exorcised demons that may’ve stunted our growth otherwise.
While I’m not so brave as to connect his name to mine here, I will confess that he will always exist within me; and that I still find comfort in expressing my words through him when life deals me a low hand.
