Triangular Toppings

I just read Jonathan Franzen’s essay “Imperial Bedroom” in his book How to be Alone. He works through the erosion of the Private into the public space. His underlying argument is that we should not be as worried about privacy as we should be about the preservation of public space. He laments the lack of laws and the disintegration of social mores protecting the public from the private. My friend, Dr. Bill Irvine also expresses this complaint in his book Doing Right by Children.

I am guilty of participating in and advocating for the movement of the “Private” into the public. I’ve written about just about everything in this eJournal. Even with my proclivity towards a completely public rendering of anything and everything in my life, I still find things to write about in my private eJournal.

But, what is in the private eJournal mostly is there because I want to prevent someone who I know from reading it. I would be perfectly happy letting any stranger read most of them.

There are a few entries though that I know I will only let my most trusted friends read, even then I would never discuss it with them though.

But is this a public space? Its not like people frequent and hang around on my eJournal. People specifically have to request this eJournal with their computer. Its more like a book in a library than a cell phone conversation on the sidewalk with others listening in. But this is still private information, in the public sphere. I’m inviting anyone to violate their public space by sprinkling my private life into their public space.

THE condementization of my life into other people’s is a curious position to be in. I’m like a spice or topping that gets thrown onto their experiences to highlight this or that emotional flavor.

But you cannot reconstruct the full flavors of my thoughts and emotions from the miniscule condiment spattering here. They seem real and vivid and touching only because they enhance the flavor of the reader’s emotions and experiences.

But lots of writing and art only become truly alive and vibrant when applied against the reality of our own experiences. If we restrict our art to the public sphere and exclude anything that should be private, the ability for the stories we tell both to each other verbally and to the public at large to touch and genuinely flavor our own experiences is greatly and unfortunately diminished.

Herein lies the danger of completely restricting everything private from the public field. By preventing the full and complete mutual exchange of all human experiences we endanger our collective ability to fully explore ourselves and reach towards self-actualization.