Don't say anything at all...

The internet makes people brave - a world of people sitting in their pajamas, hair disheveled, contacts out/glasses on, typing furiously to a screen, the drama of their lives. It's a world of business men and women, sneaking to skim blogs while their fingers itch over the button to fill their screen to with spreadsheets or presentations or company email. It's all about hiding behind the screen, behind your desk, behind your glasses and pint of Ben & Jerry's.

It makes me brave enough, sitting here in my gym clothes, with my hair still tied back in a sloppy ponytail - the same one that swished over my shoulder blades while I pounded away on the elliptical machine - I'm dirty and lazy, but hiding behind this computer screen, I'm brave enough to be vulnerable. It's a freeing experience - to post bits and pieces of your life, and to smile as others post little hello's or encouragements. And it's a mental adventure to click the next button up top and find yourself in new worlds, page after page of people - all sharing fragments of themselves from their safe little homes, across the country, across the ocean, behind the screen.

Unfortunately, tucked beneath the cloak of this online world, there are also people who are also brave enough to be mean. This is all spurred by a comment I received on one of my stories. It was a flippant little comment from a cyberspace stranger, suggesting that I might as well hang myself. The comment itself made no sense in regards to the writing, and I take no offense to it, as it seemed nonsensical to me. But it does remind me of thin the line is between fascinating and frightening in this online world. I imagine my son one day being online – and how virtually defenseless I am to protect him from the slings and arrows, so to speak.

It makes me wish that everyone could adhere to the simple childhood mantra that our mothers and grandmothers and teachers all recited: If you can't say anything nice...