Meditation on Fire

Blogging is as captivating to me as fire, and just as dangerous. I've been thinking a lot this weekend about what the next step for me is, in my writing life and the rest of my life as well.

Blogging Captivation (not necessarily in this order):
1. Developing my writing
2. Being involved in the blogging community
3. Recording the day-to-day for when I start losing my memory or my daughter shows some interest in what I was thinking while she watched Dora the Explorer (whichever comes first)

Blogging Danger:
1. Spelling mistakes (example: instead of the heading above, I first wrote "Blogging Dander")
2. I will write something that my family, friends, coworkers, etc. will find offensive. (Okay--so I admit that I'm afraid this has already happened, which is why I'm seriously thinking about entering the blogger relocation program)
3. So...can I just write the #2 reason fifty times?

What to do? The author of mommyblog suggests deciding from the start whether the blog will be public or private. Obviously she opted for public. I opted for public while trying to keep my identity private. I'm not convinced this is the ethical thing to do, or that it has actually succeeded--my fear being that I've created the tool of my own personal or professional downfall...A friend suggested that I post to livejournal, through which you can restrict the readers of your posts. That doesn't quite cut it either, because there's something really appealing (obviously, given the number of bloggers) about the potential of a readership.

I'm stuck. The writer in me wants to get better at writing. The ethnographer in me wants to document my continuing struggles to find a place within mommydom, wifehood, Southern culture and becoming a better person in my personal and professional life. The realist/buddhist in me says that there are things that I want to talk about that my husband and perhaps friends and family might find upsetting...and I'm not trying to create that kind of drama.

But then the little devil in me says "What's life without a little drama?"

Choices, choices...I know there is an answer floating out there somewhere.