Short and Sweet? Maybe. For Now ….

“Neat. Sweet. Petite.” — theme from the TV show, The Addams Family

Between the long hours at work and my weekly blogs, I do actually try to read a portion of my Emails. It’s sort of a losing battle, but I give it the game attempt when time allows. A couple of my Emails concerned my blogs and offered critiques. The first one thought my posts were fine, but that there was nothing in it about me – none of my own “personal thoughts” about my life. The second one commented on enjoying my posts, but questioned why all of my posts had to be “such epic screeds”! She also noted how the length was a “bit wearying” and wanting more frequent, shorter posts. Well!

For starters, I’ll admit I’m relatively new to the blog game and not really studied on this – or for that matter, much of any web surfing, save for news and political sites such as Thomas. That of itself probably lends itself to boring political subject coming from my quarters.

As for the first commenter’s query, I really never thought of posting anything of a personal nature. My thought was “who the hell cares?” The name of my blog is TransPolitical – not TransAutobiographical or My Diary or Deep Thoughts by Vanessa Edwards Foster. They’re my thoughts, and everyone’s got their own. Why would anyone want to read my personal musings? I might as well create my own website all about me! Yeah … I’ll think about it some day.

Mostly it just came across as too self-important, as if my own life and experiences are so much more interesting or something. Now I’ve got others like Ken Dollarhide or Ethan St. Pierre who’ll chide me otherwise and say what I’ve been through is interesting, but I’m not an easy sell on that. What I’ve noted in my personal journal was for me (mainly for memory notes) and to my knowledge not of interest to anyone beyond the closest of friends – if that.

That said, I’ve actually read and enjoy the personal touches and tidbits on Betty Crow and her wife Helen’s blogs, or Donna Rose’s blogs, as well as Gwen Smith’s and Dr. Becky’s websites. Obviously there’s little time for me to keep up with them, but when I do I find the personal items quite interesting. And even on websites, which I considered vanity vehicles in the day, nowadays Facebook and similar sites are becoming quite popular

So I suppose I am holding a dual standard on that. Maybe someday I’ll try to find time to put a separate spot for my personal musings. Honestly, it won’t be a priority though – sorry about that.

As for the other respondent, I really wasn’t aware I was being that long-winded. That took me aback a bit, and I asked around to a couple others. Sure enough, they agreed – shorter and more frequent posts are better. All I was attempting to do was to be thorough, and not misconstrued due to brevity. I was on the receiving end of such a misinterpretation once with Sylvia Rivera, and it was not pretty. I learned.

So with me being known for stubbornness, obviously I figured: let’s give it a shot. I’ll try to be a bit less screed-like (is that a word?). But it’ll take some effort. And I would imagine I may, from time to time, have need of being a bit more elaborative if the subject calls for it. But I suppose every post doesn’t need to be an editorial length epic on each post.

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief..." — Hamlet, Scene 2, Act 2 by William Shakespeare