Diabetes Blog Week Wrap-up (Plus a Warning Shot)

Diabetes Blog Week finished Sunday. I really enjoyed being part of this, writing my own posts and (especially) reading other people’s contributions. I’m giving a huge “Thanks!” to Karen for coming up with the idea for this village green experience and for providing the essential scaffolding that the rest of us were able to use. It really made participating easier.

It’s wonderful to have a place — virtual though it may be — where people understand what I’m talking about on a deep level.* Because so many of us were conversing on the same subject on a daily basis, I found it much less isolating than the usual “I’m going to talk about diabetes now” experience. And I especially enjoyed the honesty that was possible when we were writing for each other; I didn’t feel like I had to have all my shit together before talking about my disease. (It often feels easier to talk to people with working pancreases, if I just pretend that I do — whether or not that’s the case.)

In fact, I think I finally get the real value in the diabetes online community (DOC). In the past I’ve tend to visit the DOC to get information that I felt could help me manage my illness better. But having read so many posts over the last week, I find myself thinking about it as a place that’s primarily about sharing other people’s experiences, talking about my own, and just being present. Certainly, I’m going to keep trying to learn as much as I can from the same sources as before, but being able to get extra perspectives has a ton of value in itself.

I wonder if you feel the same way, too. And I hope that if you’ve been reading me for the first time over the last week, you’ll stick around. Big things are going to happen in the coming weeks that you might want to read about — for example, we’re going to Australia for a month — and I’ve been enjoying all of your comments.

Now here’s the scary part (for me, at least). I want all y’all from the DOC to stick around, but I’m not primarily a “diabetes blogger.” I have a lot of stuff on my mind: diabetes, the US healthcare system, travel, photography, New England cemeteries, and a bunch of stuff that’s more like work than fun. (That last chunk of stuff actually comprises the majority of the traffic to my site, if not the majority of what I write about. . . . Go figure.) And I use this space to post on all of those things. Unless you’re actually me, some of my regular topics aren’t going to be your cup of tea.

So let’s make a deal. If you stick around and ignore the non-diabetes posts that don’t interest you, I promise to give you something worth reading more often than not. Just add me to your RSS feed reader or stop by regularly. Deal? Good.

. . . And now it’s time to put this new relationship to the test. I’ve been sitting on the next two posts (people’s exhibits a and b) for the last week so that they wouldn’t get in the way of your Diabetes Blog Week reading. It was enjoyable, but my! wasn’t there a lot of reading?! And I just didn’t want to add to that.

See y’all again soon!

* — I’m reminded of the time that I accidentally happened upon a little people’s convention in the late 80s in Des Moines, Iowa. Lots of people who are usually “the other” were running around doing their own thing in a supportive community. I felt like the odd one out. In the DOC, we’re on the inside.