The more personal you are willing to be and the more intimate you are willing to be about the details of your own life, the more universal you are… And when I say universal, I don’t mean universal only within our culture… There’s a lot of balderdash thrown around — “You don’t understand people who live in Sri Lanka and their response to the tsunami because you just don’t know that culture.”
Well, there’s an element of that — but, to me, cultural differences are a kind of patina over the deepest psychosexual feelings that we have, that all human beings share.
Sherwin Nuland, extract from yet another brilliant Brain Pickings post.
One of the constant battles I have with this blog of mine is just how much raw and gritty truth I write here. And in struggling with 'how much', I suspect I lose quite a lot.
I do know that friends in real life enjoy catching up on the details I usually leave off my blog. I have a complicated family life ... like so many these days. I have much to write about on the subject of being a step-mother, perhaps. And even more about being a foreigner in this day and age. Or on traveling without languages (usually). And on just making it home ... And even more on why I haven't dedicated my days to learning the language in this country I'm currently a citizen of.
I have this theory ... but that's for another day.
I love red wine. I mostly drink sparkling water though, with 2 espressos per day, and lately, a hot chocolate sometimes. Most other drinks don't agree with me because they're full of sugar, or sugar substitutes, or have too much caffeine or tanin or goodness knows what. I used to be able to drink and eat ANYTHING! Now I have food allergies and grass allergies, and they just added dust mites to that list but I've only just begun to check the facts of it all.
I prefer not to take anti-histamines.
I'm not good at learning languages but I love people and traveling. It seems to work out. We 'talk' anyway.
'I'm from New Zealand ... ' gets me further than I could have imagined, in terms of excuses for everything. We Kiwis are a delightful people from an exquisitely beautiful country. So yes, what am I doing out here in the northern hemisphere?! That's something else I could also write much and often about.
I love photography and books, and writing and people and other cultures, and conversations that go on into the night. I love sitting down on that airport bus, leaving to fly someplace, and I love coming home to people and places I know. I love music. All kinds. I love people who are passionate about what they do, and I adore people who are kind.
I'm a grouch. I should write on my blog on my grouchy days. I'm quiet and need space, and if you hurt me I'll disappear into a silence. I'll try not to argue ... so don't make me. Just believe me, it's better you don't. I also love talking. And meeting new people.
So you see, I leave a lot of this off the blog but I'm thinking, in 2015, I might experiment with just being me on the blog. Let's see how that goes ... I'd like to be more universal.