Storytelling

My buddy asked a good question that I think sheds a lot of light on this whole blog thing. "How candid can you be?" Turns out I'm less candid than I'd like. The occasional rant against stupid rules aside, I choose my words with some care.

First off, there's "operational security." That means I avoid discussing, in detail, where we work, who we talk with, what we discuss, and all that good stuff. And since the absolute most interesting part of my work deals with specific personalities in specific places facing specific issues, OPSEC dictates that NOT I share my most colorful stories. Given where we work and what we do, discretion can be a life and death matter (remind me someday to tell you the one about the crooked politician, the altruistic warlord, and the incompetent construction contractor.)

Second, there's this whole Internet-is-forever thing. I try not to sell out any of my buddies here with names or photos, on the idea that anything I say can be tied to me forever, but it shouldn't haunt anyone else. So, I scrub their details out of my postings too.

Finally, I've got a little bit of paternalistic editing going on. I (usually) judge it best not to share my own fears and anxieties. My mom reads this. She's worried enough. This is my fight. So there goes one of the juicier sources of material.

What we're left with is storytelling- how do I reflect the true texture of this place not through reports (which I officially do plenty of), but through stories (which entail some fudging of fact.) It's a challenge that I wrestle with every time I post. And, often, when I decide not to.