"I really get me."

"The older I get, the more I enjoy myself as a conversational companion--so agreeable, so insightful, so funny! I really get me! So I think as bloggers, we simply want others to get us--it is a way of sharing that offers few, if any risks."

These words are from my longtime friend Gail in Detroit, whose new blog showcases both her painting and writing. It's worth checking out. (And I'm not just saying this because Gail is the most faithful commenter on this blog.)

But I don't necessarily agree with Gail about there being few, if any risks to blogging. You never know who is reading your posts. You can easily be misunderstood, or in the passion of the moment hurt people, even in your own family, as I did with rude things I said in the aftermath of my bitterness about the 2004 election.

It became real for me how many unexpected readers can find their way to your site when I plugged into my T-mobile connection at a Starbucks while traveling last summer. The guy at the next table overheard me say my name on a cell-phone call. He said, "Michael Nolan from Philadelphia? I was just reading your blog yesterday." He was a political blogger himself, and had done a Google search for the mayor of Indianapolis. He came to my blog because I had mentioned the mayor's name in a post. It was an eerie feeling and made me want to be more careful about what I write.