Finding new blogs is exciting. You've stumbled upon a fresh perspective, a collection of writings that is more than just about some new Web 2.0 tool or something shallow, that isn't afraid to plumb the depths of the human soul...to put itself out there and be honest. Today, the day before Father's Day, I woke up a bit early, before the kids awoke, and checked my email and aggregator. Will Richardson had written something about Adults and MySpace. It's a powerful post, one that resonates with me as a father of a 12 year old and a 6 year old who are both tech-users, and only just beginning to learn to be content producers. It's based on his reading of Stephen Downes' entry at his Half an Hour blog. Both entries are worth reading.

In this blog--which I didn't know about either--Stephen is writing some powerful stuff. Stephen is referenced all over the place, but what I typically read is summaries of other blogs/reflections on other blog entries (Old Daily). I had not seen the passionate writing that encourages him to leave comments at Around the Corner. In other words, I felt like I was only seeing one side of Stephen and trying to understand why he was referenced all over the place...I assumed that his face-to-face presence was very powerful and people must have met him that way. My apologies if this is perceived as rude.

So, imagine my surprise, when I read writing like this, which was just thrilling:

More recently, I guess, I have found it surprisingly hard to be honest to myself. The force you see in my words is me struggling with some of these thoughts and ideas. I want - I need - to believe I am living the right life, conducting myself the right way. And I have to present to myself in stark, uncompromising terms, what I believe that way to be.

It's funny about alienating readers. When I publish OLDaily, I publish it all at once, as a single shot. The very first response I receive, every single day, is "Unsubscribe." As it turns out, no matter what I write, this will be the response. I have learned - I have had to learn - a certain detachment about it. If I am honest with myself and sharing with others, I will have readers, and I will have friends. And so I cultivate my own honesty and my own sharing. It is very hard.
Source: Half an Hour

Wow. This IS starkly honest writing. It's the kind of writing lots of folks don't like to engage in because, it is so REAL. It's inspiring, and also, dangerous. It is addictive. It is the kind of writing that makes you fit for nothing else (as opposed to unfit).

Back to Will's and Stephen's points in the Adults and MySpace entry . . .We want to hide our sins in the darkness, but kids, who live with us in that darkness because they have nowhere else to go, are doing in the Sun what we've practiced in the dark. To see them, so nakedly doing what we do in the dark, frolicking in the sun...that must be stopped because we're ashamed of what we do in secret.

As Stephen and Will recognize, their failure is a visible manifestation of our failure. The only answer is to act adult...but so few know what that is, that it only makes sense that a strong, authoritarian, angry god be brought in to save the day, to discipline those cavorting at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net