What's a Blog, Anonymous?

Blogs have been around for ten years give or take. I certainly did not think of myself as "cutting edge" when I started doing this a month ago. But when I told my friends what I was up to, I found out that many of them had never seen nor read a blog before. Indeed, many comments on my posts begin, "I'm new to blogging..." One response to my email announcing the birth of this blog was, "What's a blog?"

Now, I admit that most of my acquaintances are over thirty, which may account for the cluelessness. For those of us who did not grow up with computers, cyberspace can seem a rather strange new land. So I offer this little blogging primer to make it easier for you to become part of the Sanity Made Simple community.

1. Blogs are journals. But they come in all kinds of crazy shapes and sizes. All they really have in common is that there are entries made on a regular basis. You will notice that the newest entry is the first thing you see on the page, followed by older posts (journal entries). As posts age, they are "archived". You can usually find the archives section on the sidebar. My archive section is entitled, "More Mental Notes." As I make more entries, that section will grow. (Right now it's just a baby.)

2. While some blogs are personal accounts of someone's everyday life, others offer information about a particular field or area of interest. If you were an entomologist, for example, you could search for "bug blogs" and find people blogging on your subject. (Hmm.... accordion blogs.... I should look... never mind...) Anyway, the idea here is that when someone starts a blog they are announcing to cyberspace travelers, "Hey, I know something about bugs. If you do too (or even if you don't), come talk to me. Let's create a discussion group, or community on my blog about bugs. How about it?"

3. As far as this blog is concerned, I know something about sanity (or maybe I only think I do). I offer this blog in an attempt to share that information. You can react to what I say, forward my posts to friends, or add some thoughts of your own. When you click on the word comments at the end of a post and write a response, you help the sanity garden grow (and give the bugs a place to hang out). The goal here is to build a community of people talking about sane living.

4. People who visit blogs but never leave comments are called "lurkers." I think it's okay to lurk, but I also believe that everyone has something important to say. So I want to suggest that you "delurk" as soon as you can. And you have some choices when you do.

• You can identify yourself with your real name if you're comfortable, but you don't have to. (You'll notice some real name users in my comments section already.)
• If you don't want to use your real name, you can make up a screen name so that each time you write in I know the comments are coming from the same person. For example, I may not know who Maine Poet is, but each time MP writes in we're building a dialog nonetheless.
• Maybe you want me to know who you are but not everybody else who reads the blog. In that case choose a nickname that I can identify you by. It just so happens that Maine Poet is a nickname for someone I know.
• You can do the screen name thing by clicking on the radio button next to the word "other" that's under the comments window. Once you click the button, a box will appear where you can type in a screen name unique to you. So, why am I making a big deal of this? Read on.

5. Yesterday, SO (significant other) was reading the comments on my blog, and asked, "Who's Anonymous?" Answer: anonymous is everybody who is clicking the "anonymous" button rather than creating a screen name. It's like an ant hill. I don't know which ant is saying what. You all look alike. So, let's have some fun. Make a name for yourself so our interactions can be more specific, more personal, even if they are, well - anonymous. In other words you can retain your anonymity with a screen name. "Hi, it's me, Callipygous Ant." (And we throw in vocabulary lessons at no extra charge.)

So I hope this helps you understand and participate. By now you should be thinking, "How many metaphors did she mix up this time? I better get in there and help her!"

Copyright 2007 starfishdoc

The Unexpected Metaphor

He's a musician, and just last night he was pointing out why he prefers a particular microphone. "When I sing into it you can hear all the nuances in my voice. That's because the mic leaves air around my voice, especially at the top end."

Today, I'm sitting with two parents and their teenager. The teen has been angry with them for a long time, and behavior problems have been the result. But things are going better, partly because of a great metaphor. It's the one about the helicopter. It describes the type of parent who constantly hovers and buzzes around their teen, asking if homework's done, grounding a kid who walks in one minute past curfew. These parents have worked hard to stop doing that. It was the metaphor that clinched their understanding.

Now that they have removed much of the negativity, I want them to stop what they think is helpful behavior: using every conversation with their teen as a "teachable moment." I want them to see that if they're doing the talking, even when what they're saying is positive, healthy, and character-building, the teenage can't process and think. A teenager needs to hear the sound of his/her own voice. So I tell them the microphone metaphor. There's silence for a moment, then Mom says, "Oh, I get it! We're not leaving enough air at the top!"

I'm not a poet. Many of my chosen clinical metaphors are, well, clunky. I am exceedingly grateful to all the clients who have endured them. But clunky or not, metaphors work. They become a shorthand for profound moments of "Aha!" I still hear about them from past clients, who will say things like it was the "teacup thing", or the "rowing away looking back" or the "bull and the matador" that helped everything fall into place.

Are there some metaphors that have helped you crystallize a problem or discover a solution? I'd love to hear about them.

Copyright 2007, starfishdoc