I often question publicly via my blog. For some, that's distasteful. I've thought a lot about that critique, but I continue to question aloud. Why? How?
I question aloud because I want to pose the questions to the broader community and share my thoughts. I'm open to critique about my thoughts and people's answers to the questions I pose. I believe the questions are important, and I know I don't have any monopoly when it comes to right answers since for most questions there can be many right answers depending on the circumstances that surround those questions.
Yet, when I pose these questions publicly, people I know may be able to connect my question to situations in their lives or our shared experiences, and some of those situations may have been or are still very sensitive situations. This results at times in anger, frustration, hurt, and condemnation of my posts and me. I never want to enrage, frustrate, or hurt people. That's not my intent. Instead I want to ponder life's questions to help me figure out best paths of living.
When I write I have some rules for my writing.
First, in keeping with my belief that there can be many right answers to questions due to the fact that a question may look different from various vantage points, I try to look at questions from many angles and I try to relate the questions to experiences in my life.
Next, if the question relates to a behavior I find confusing or troubling, I try to think back and remember a time when I used a similar behavior to gain perspective of that behavior. I try to see how I may have employed behaviors good and bad in my own life in order to gain greater empathy and understanding of the behaviors I have questions about.
In addition, I always try to look for a myriad of related events that connect to the question, and I rarely to never use names of people or specific places unless what I'm writing about is general knowledge and news known to most people. If I do add a person's name related to a specific question about a more private or personal event, good or bad, I will generally ask permission to do so.
In my own search for answers, I have found lots of good information, ideas, and thoughts on people's blogs and articles on the Internet. That information has helped me to deal with all kinds of issues and pursuits in positive ways. That's one more reason why I want to contribute to that information.
I understand that people desire varying degrees of privacy with more choosing greater privacy than less, but I also know that to open up the doors to good questions of life and living has the potential to help people to live better lives. That's why I question and that's why I write. Onward.
