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The Man who twirled with rose in teeth
Has his tongue tied up in thorns
His once-expanded sense of space
and time all shot and torn.
See him wander, hat in hand
"look at me I’m so forlorn
Ask anyone who can recall
It’s horrible to be born"

Bruce Cockburn – Shipwrecked at the Stable Door

I live my life as a doctor.  I try to share that life with you in this blog.  It certainly is tough to be a physician in the US at this time.  I think it is good to have this venue by which to share my life.  It gives good space for discussion on some really important issues.  It gives both entertainment and education for my readers, and it gives me a chance to do something I truly enjoy: to write.

Yet I wonder sometimes, how much to open the door on my life.  I am not just a doctor and blogger.  I am a father and a husband.  I have lots of other things going on in my life.  I have lots of other things going on in my head.  As a blogger, you show yourself to the world in a way that is, to some extent, controlled by what you reveal.  I am a two-dimensional person, showing the sides of myself that are most comfortable for me to show.  Yet that is not all there is.

To some extent we do that with everyone we know.  We smile when we are having a bad day so we don’t have to explain why we aren’t smiling.  We let people into our thoughts, but only as much as we are comfortable doing, and we hide some thoughts from anyone altogether.

Something funny happens, however, when you have blogged for a while: you build friendships.  Clearly the biggest difference between now an my life prior to blogging is that I have a bunch more friends – and a very diverse group at that.  I have friends who are from all over the country – even all around the world.  I have Hindu, Jewish, Atheist, and Agnostic friends, where I would have never had such an opportunity to get close to people across so many faiths – especially given my basically sheltered WASP American suburban life.

Once you get friends, the natural tendency is to build those friendships.  Building those friendships usually involves learning struggles and weaknesses of other people.  Friendship involves living through periods of peoples’ lives while at their side.  It also involves letting other people in to the stuff in your life that you are going through so that they can stand by you.

Why do I write this?  I write this as a thank-you to those who have sensed that things are not all "peachy" in my life at this time.  It is nice to know that people care about more than just your writing.  It is nice to know that others have a real interest in your life.  It is a sign that you have really developed friendships.  That’s a really good thing.

I certainly won’t detail what is going on, and am not out trolling for pats on the back; I just want to acknowledge the fact that I truly do feel that the "hobby" of blogging is far more than that.  It is real life.  It involves real people who I am really getting to know.  It is not the same as golf or fishing.  It is not the same as bowling or model trains.  It is much more than that.  We have a community of people who are – on different levels – getting to know one-another.  These friendships are no less real than those with the people I see during the day – in fact, the convenience of the Internet makes them far more accessible than my "real life" friends.

So, to all of my friends out there, I say to you:  Thanks for letting me get to know you.  Thanks for your friendship.

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