I’ve been philosophising again.

I first heard of Samuel Pepys back in high school. He was the answer to a trivia question. Sadly, high school rarely extends beyond trivia, so I learned no more about Pepys, and I still know next to nothing about him.

Pepys came to my attention recently because of www.pepysdiary.com, where they are publishing one entry from his famous Diary every day. I learned an interesting fact on that site: Samuel Pepys wrote his Diary in shorthand, and kept it secret. It was only published after he was dead.

Smart guy.

I’ve spent several months trying to decide why I put my website back up in the first place. I’m pretty sure it’s because I enjoy writing. And I do so much technical writing that I would welcome the chance to write something more personal, like a diary.

But I can’t publish a diary, because I’m still alive. More importantly, most of my friends are also still alive.

High school does teach you some non-trivial things, and here’s one: it’s rude to talk about someone as if they were not there. It is okay, within limits, to talk about an absent person, but when someone is in the room you are supposed to either invite them into the conversation or leave them out of it. The problem with the Web is that the whole world is in the room, so you can’t really talk behind anyone’s back.

I used to think I could finesse this problem by talking about people without using their names. I was one hundred percent wrong. Here is an example of how wrong I was. For safety’s sake, I keep this example inside a Literary Containment Field:

<FICTION>
I have a friend with a very large nose who doesn’t realize how huge it really is.
</FICTION>

Did you just think about your nose? Did you thank God that you are not my friend, and that I therefore cannot possibly be talking about your nose? Worse yet: did you swear never to become my friend, lest one day I casually call the entire world’s attention to your nose, or perhaps your socks?

I like having friends, so I’m giving up the diary idea. When I want to write personal stuff I will stick to fiction, which is a wonderful invention that I appreciate more every day. When I want to write nonfiction I will focus on people’s public lives: I can talk about books or movies or politics or other people’s web sites, and that’s hardly much of a limitation.

And if you, my friend, wonder why you never appear on these pages, it’s because I care for you, and your privacy and pride are entrusted to me. I will keep my secrets.