Conversation With A Stranger

A friend and I (the term 'friend' is used loosely here, as I have never met him & he's not on my contact list) were having a casual conversation, when he, let's call him Mr. X, contacted me to deliver a message from someone we both knew, but not able to contact me directly. At some point during the chat, he told me he had read one of my Blogs, had then checked me out in Google (!!), to see whether I had plagiarized what was written in my Blog. He justified his caution (to me, more of a suspicion) saying that many people do carry such practice. I don't doubt that. I myself have copied & pasted some materials, mostly jokes, some quotes, or some news emitted publicly. Anyway Mr. X's investigation had led him to pronounce me innocent.

Almost a compliment that somebody actually took the time and trouble to go as far as to check me out in Google!! I thought one has to be important, very good or extremely bad enough to make their mark there. I said my Blogs contained only my own thoughts, views and opinions. Should there be mistakes or people who don't agree with some or all of my views, well, like everybody else, I am entitled to express them, even to make mistakes, and that all my Blogs were for the public, as I had nothing to hide.

That last statement of mine started off a long discussion. Mr. X seemed to think that I do have something to hide, as I don't write about things closely connected with my personal life. He would have discovered, had he read a couple more of my Blogs and not just one, a great part of my life was indeed in many of them. He was certain, he said, that if he had asked me to, I wouldn't have written about, for instance, 'a roll in the hay with a Spaniard ' (my more discrete description of what he actually said; his was much more colourful version ). He was sure of that. So was I. Still am.

Why the hell should I write about something like that had it actually happened? My sex life is definitely nobody else's business. What he meant was, that my statement of my having nothing to hide (in my Blogs) was not correct. But I think it was. Correct I mean. Otherwise they would not carry the 'For the public' setting.

Those who have read more than one of my Blogs would, I should think, know me as a person much better than those who haven't, even if they have known me, for instance, as an acquaintance for years. I think a lot of me is in my Blogs although none of them was written as a diary.

What is a person, I said to him, but for his / her principals, beliefs, integrity, thoughts, views, ideas or ideals, and actions?

I chose not to write about many things not because I need to hide them from people. Simply the fact that I don't deem them suitable or interesting subjects for ME to write about, even though as he said many people would enjoy reading other people's sex lives. My Blogs are primarily for ME, not for other people, but I don't mind them reading if they choose to, that's all.

I also refrain from writing about religions, politics, or any other argument provoking themes. That doesn't mean I am hiding anything, simply because I have very clear idea or conviction about them in my mind and in my heart, therefore, no need to put them in text, less to publish them.

Tags:Stranger,Plagiarism

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