Containers 4: Separation
It has been brought to my attention that this blog may be too personal to have a direct link from my professional page. After worrying a bit about undermining my credibility, I began to think about the problem in terms of, you guessed it, containers. My website is a container for certain transmissions of information. It holds linguistic content in which I have encoded my thoughts, etc. That container has certain rules about who can put things in it and who can take things out. Basically, I can add all the fluid I want and you, the dear reader, can look at that fluid. The website at the university is ostensibly for academic purposes: it holds a little bit of my work and persona as an academic out for the world to taste. Once it has more to it, it will do that work more thoroughly, I hope.
So, there is my "professional" website. (The prospect of speaking of academic work as professional is not uncontested, though I don't remember where right now.) People who do not know anything about me go to that website with the intention of taking a look at the work I do. A friend of mine who is in a similar "professional" position (a grad student) and whom, in this post, I will refer to as "C," suggested that linking this blog to such a narrowly intentional site may be too personal and thereby compromising of the project of the above mentioned website.
I didn't see anything wrong (obviously) with linking the blog to the site initially. After all, the link is labelled "reflection." It is not called, "academic writing" or "the crux of my academic work." C, I do not mean to harangue you, I am simply making a point. In fact, other links are specifically labeled, "Geography" and "History," employing double meaning. Each of them is an academic discipline in which I have interest and they each serve to reveal geographical and historical items.
So, I guess my initial response is: the website is not fully academic. As a container, it holds the trailheads, the links, to several different paths. A few of those are academic and a couple are not. Additionally, I have tried to write with a bit of removal in the posts on this blog. I am not writing a diary of my daily events, nor am I using the blog as psychotherapy; rather, I am trying to tease out a theme, containers, from the variety of my reflective projects (geography, yoga, UUism, and blogging itself).
However, I am open to criticism such as: this blog is too personal to be linked to your geography website. If you agree with our friend "C," please drop me a line in the comment section of this post or by email.
So, there is my "professional" website. (The prospect of speaking of academic work as professional is not uncontested, though I don't remember where right now.) People who do not know anything about me go to that website with the intention of taking a look at the work I do. A friend of mine who is in a similar "professional" position (a grad student) and whom, in this post, I will refer to as "C," suggested that linking this blog to such a narrowly intentional site may be too personal and thereby compromising of the project of the above mentioned website.
I didn't see anything wrong (obviously) with linking the blog to the site initially. After all, the link is labelled "reflection." It is not called, "academic writing" or "the crux of my academic work." C, I do not mean to harangue you, I am simply making a point. In fact, other links are specifically labeled, "Geography" and "History," employing double meaning. Each of them is an academic discipline in which I have interest and they each serve to reveal geographical and historical items.
So, I guess my initial response is: the website is not fully academic. As a container, it holds the trailheads, the links, to several different paths. A few of those are academic and a couple are not. Additionally, I have tried to write with a bit of removal in the posts on this blog. I am not writing a diary of my daily events, nor am I using the blog as psychotherapy; rather, I am trying to tease out a theme, containers, from the variety of my reflective projects (geography, yoga, UUism, and blogging itself).
However, I am open to criticism such as: this blog is too personal to be linked to your geography website. If you agree with our friend "C," please drop me a line in the comment section of this post or by email.
posted by Breathing at 11:42 AM
4 Comments:
If you want to link from the academic web site you may want to remove the link to the protstitute lover. He does write about some graphic stuff. You should be more than 2 links away from "anal sex" when you are on an academic website. You may want to make a personal academic website then link to this site from that site. Then you have 3 clicks to C.I.M.
good advice. and this i will do. i like the idea of number of clicks away. while i may eventually take the p-lover down off the blog. his blog is fascinating. or, rather, the fact that such a blog exists is fascinating.
besides the p-lover, is this stuff too personal?
I don't think so. It is pretty personal, but you are a personable guy. :)
This posting has challenged me to think about why I suggested this blog might be too personal.
I initally clicked on your website precisely because I was interested in the personal. Going to a link entitled 'reflection' enabled that. But as I was reading your Containers 3 reflection it felt I had access to information I shouldn't. I felt a little sneaky... a little like a peeping tom into your mind - despite the fact that you had given me access to the site.
I felt I hadn't earned the privilege to see you, to know you in that way.
It's occurred to me now, that this reaction comes from my own values. I wouldn't necessarily share something like Containers 3 with just anyone. It doesn't fit my equation of someone earning my trust, earning the privilege to come inside my mind.
But that's my own personal equation (why? this blog has me thinking about that now too..). But your personal equation of who can have access to that part of you is obviously very different. Perhaps for you the privilege is the inverse, perhaps you feel privileged that people care enough and are curious enough about you that they want to read your blogs and respond.
So to answer the question you posed, is this too personal, my response to you is no. Your website is your space, your creation, a representation of self - a reflection of who you are and perhaps who you want to become. There should be no rules to such a space - no values imposed except the ones you decide to weave into your creation.
I admire that you share yourself in such a way. And I'm happy that you do, because it enables me to learn about you - who I seem to be ever curious about.
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