Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo

Master was driving me off to a doctor's appointment this morning, and we were talking about this blog.  We've had what, for us, amounts to a pretty good month in terms of our statistics, and that is always a point of interest.  He gets fascinated by the numbers, especially as they approach particular milestones.  Too, we've been conversing a good bit with morningstar recently, and last night as I talked with her, she said, "I feel as if I know you."  That comment made us both smile.  If there is one thing that can be said about this blog, it is that we tend to lay it all out there -- the good, the bad, and the ugly (Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo).

He said that it is hard to imagine (and sometimes hard to read) how much of that we've done over the years.  Reading our blog is more melodramatic than almost any soap opera, and it often surprises us, when we look back, how very plainly we paint the daily ups and downs of our lives.  There's very little sugar coating of things here.  What is happening, for good or bad, is what we write about.  As I told Him, "that is very difficult to do sometimes, but I think it gives us huge credibility."  People who know us here, should they have the opportunity to interact with us more immediately, are often somewhat surprised that there is very little about us that they don't expect.  We are, as nearly as the medium permits it, exactly as we seem here. 

As often as it has been painful or embarrassing to continue to write our honest reality here month after month, it has also been good.  We've worked through many a rough place right here.  We've learned from those who've shared their wisdom and compassion with us in our struggling.  We've made some good friends who have been fine companions on this journey -- some for years, and some for shorter bits of time.  The cost to us of our honesty here has been minor compared to the riches we've reaped.

Those who know me know that I am disinclined to "play" the in-crowd games of the blogosphere.  I tend to not get involved in the "special" days and "special" months that are instituted in our midst by some unknown and unseen arbiter of the blogging calendar.  I don't participate in events like Love Our Lurkers or March Question and Answer Month.  I don't do Half-Naked Thursdays or Gratitude Tuesdays.  I am the Ebenezer Scrooge of the whole cyber neighborhood.  Ask anyone -- they'll tell you.  So, when I got an email from morningstar telling me that she'd passed on a Beautiful Blogger Award, I had to sit with it awhile, and think about what to do or say -- because it didn't make me feel as crabby as that sort of thing sometimes does.  I appreciate the sentiment, and feel somehow affirmed by what she wrote: 

"a beautiful friend and staunch supporter and a really damn good listener !!! ........ she writes from the heart too.... tells it like it is........ no sugar coating.... honest and beautiful"

I don't know.  Maybe I'm getting soft in my own age, but today I am simply grateful for the kind words of sweet affirmation for the work of being here and being real.

swan

P.S.  I'm supposed to tag some others, but it will be no surprise that I'm breaking the rules.  The most beautiful ones of my circle don't like these things either... you all know who you are :-)