not so anonymous any more

Hidden CaveSpirit Stones of New Mexico SeriesWatercolor, three stones, 13.5 x 9
Jan Flapan, Watercolor Artist

we are all called to be authentic and genuine and at the same time, we would like to remain anonymous.

why is that? you don't want folks to know the *real* you so you sign in as anonymous with no connection to email addresses or homepages and continue to hide behind your monitor because nobody knows who you are, and with bloggers like me who don't block anonymous commenters like you, you find you are truly welcomed in certain circles and that sets well with you; it works for you. and thus far, it's worked for me -- i've not had to delete too many untoward comments and if i have, it is usually from people i *know*.

then you have folks like my cyberpal macstansbury who starts up his own group called the alliance of the anonymous and he is actually doing so because he no longer wants to be anonymous and wants to show up as a blip on someone's radar. i think he's a hoot so i am showing some "linky love" for the anonymous one who wants to come out of the closet (in a manner of speaking, mind you, he is quite hetero as you will be able to tell from his posts...)

i found fred via one of my surfing sunday trips and he had a humorous thread about blogoholics anonymous. we can all laugh at the silly thought, but can we admit we identify? (if we did admit it, i bet it would be under an *anonymous* comment...)

i always find curious servant, who bases much of his blogging on the book of job, to be very sobering, but not in a bad way. he makes me think with every. single. thing. he. writes. it's a good conviction, though, and i found sinners anonymous to be worth the read.

in our world of computer savvy where we can look up i.p. addresses and find out where your homepage really is, even if you don't publish it, why remain anonymous?

don't want folks to know how you really feel?
don't want people to travel with you to your desert of the real? (thanks, mmm!)
is this not your place to express yourself freely?

but not so freely?

why hide?

what are your thoughts?