I'm alright

I woke this morning and checked my email, and there was an anonymously submitted blog comment asking if I'm alright. Yes I am alright, and I'm entirely sure of that.

I very much appreciate the supportive and sympathetic comments which readers have recently made, and, to the people who have rang, sent messages, or showed up in person, and offered support and in doing so have given it, thank you - I'm not relying on you for those gifts but they are making a big difference. Now I must add, re the enquiry as to whether I'm sure I'm alright, that I understand why somebody would ask and I appreciate that person's concern, too. However, to ask me a question which is, after all, quite intimate and was phrased in a way that suggests a perception of intimacy between the asker and myself, but to do this without placing yourself in a legible relation to me in some fashion, is a bit unsettling for me, and that is why I have rolled up my reply into this lengthy, stiff and ungracious sentence.

I also appreciate that the parameters and boundaries around anonymity and intimacy in this space might not be easy for readers to judge and navigate with confidence. A couple of years ago I wrote something about how I understood the boundaries and those remarks still pretty much sum it up for me now, including the fact that I can't really specify where my thresholds are but they definitely do exist.

I wrote that post sitting at the big table in Journal cafe, in between shovelling forkloads of lemon-dressed avocado on toast into my mouth, and I remember, I felt pretty good about things that day. I'm going to go in to work late this morning. Breakfast at the big table beckons.