Recently, at a rather quiet and refined gathering of bloggers, the topic of blog personas came up. The discussion involved the comparison of real life personalities to personalities asserted online and the fact that many times they are not the same.

I sort of scratched my head at this. I mean, sure, I know there are many talented writers who create wildly intricate stories that have nothing to do with their personal experiences, but when it comes to blogging… I don’t know. It feels so personal to me. Now maybe it’s my lack of talent, but I’d be hard-pressed to prevent my personality from seeping onto my blog.

My blog persona is my real life persona–for good or for bad.

In real life, and online, I find myself gravitating toward people who are genuine. Too many times in my life I’ve been confused by folks who will say one thing when you are alone but change their tune in front of others. When I was younger, I was just too trusting. Now that I’m older, I don’t have the patience or energy to keep guessing.

Be yourself. I promise I’ll like you much better that way–warts and all.

In fact, the warts often make folks far more interesting. I know the posts that strike me are often those that reveal the writer’s imperfections and how they’re approaching them.

It’s certainly true about the post I nominated for this month’s Perfect Post Award.

My incredible friend Steph reflected about recent challenges she’s overcome and how she’s decided that life is just too short not to be true to herself and those around her–despite the reactions that may cause.

I’d argue that Steph has been far more authentic than she might believe all along, but the message of her post was so right on.

She asked there and I’ll ask here: do you think the world, your readers see your authentic self?

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The Original Perfect Post Awards are brought to you each month by Petroville and Suburban Turmoil.

Clean margins!!!

Many days I look at the news, and I want to go and bury my head in the sand. What kind of world have we created for our children?? We work hard to teach them to play fair and be kind to others and then I look around at the adults in the news and wonder what role models they have.

And then I read WhyMommy and the hundreds of bloggers who have been supporting her throughout her battle with breast cancer and I breathe a sigh of relief. There are good people in the world. And their energy and love and caring for another they’ve never met renews my faith in the possibilities for good.

Susan has written so many posts over the past eight months that have inspired me, but this one really spoke to me–made me cry. So to Susan I bestow my nomination for the January 08 Perfect Post Award.

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The Perfect Post awards are sponsored each month by the lovely Kim and Lindsay. If you’d like to present an award next month, e-mail them and they’ll send you the latest award button code a few days before the 1st. If you’re interested in looking through past award posts, they can be found here.

Sometimes you’re going along surviving French III, making headway with your parents to extend your curfew and next thing you know life is raining on your perfectly, poufy, hot-rolled hair. That’s how it seemed to me, at 16, when my sister’s life started spinning out of control toppling the rest of my family over with her.

Drug addiction is an ugly thing.

Screaming, emergency room visits, rehab, changing schools, yelling, rehab, calls from the police, running away, rehab, padlocks on bedroom doors, counseling, rehab… A joke developed around the house.

Me: Mom I can’t find the camera.
Mom: We used to have one.
Together: But it wasn’t nailed to the counter. {explosion of laughter}

An addict will pawn anything to get money for drugs, whether it belongs to them or not.

You might think we sound heartless having enjoyed a laugh while my sister was obviously suffering in such a profound way, but we had too. Daily life was too hard. We all spent so many days, months–shoot years–walking on egg shells, not knowing what would happen next, worrying that we knew what would, that we needed a little levity just to cope.

Humor is a tactic my family’s employed a number of times over the years to avoid drowning in the buckets of shit that have been poured over our heads. I think it’s why one of my favorite movie scenes is the one in Steel Magnolia’s when Sally Field is cursing the world over her daughter’s coffin and Olympia Dukakis offers up Shirly MacLaine’s face for a smack. The relief of laughter after heaving sobs is like a cleansing shower.

Life sucks at times and we all need a way to figure out how to keep going. And this is all a very long way of explaining why I nominated Kris from I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Wino for the October Perfect Post award. The woman understands the importance of a good laugh.

Vision of national health care system in under universal health care. The ability to have national system means that we’ll see outbreaks of illnesses earlier, we’ll have translators available 24/7.

Dependent Care:

What would that look like under the Edwards Presidency?
“I wish I knew the answer. Every employer regardless of size would give seven days paid sick leave a year (regardless of size). That’s the only thing I know at the present time. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a plan.”

My question:

How will our lives change if your husband becomes president? We’ve heard many positions on issues, including health care, but howwill our world be safer and more prosperous for our children if JohnEdwards is President?

“John’s policies are about the ladder that people used to climb toward the American dream. Many of the rungs are broken. Education, a good wage, people were healthy and hearty. There is not as much mobility between the parts of our society that there used to be. Top 300,000 wage earners in this country earn the same as the bottom 150 million in our country. Want to reinstill that we can move through our work. Universal health care is a big part of that. You have to be healthy to work hard, go to school. People aren’t sitting around worried about their health care, people aren’t worried about their schools because we’ll have schools that are working to educate our children. We have 11,000 HS that are graduating most of their students. We keep failing our teachers and students but we can’t do that any more. This isn’t something that will change in one term. This is a long term plan. John’s plan for college for everyone…means that people who didn’t have a hope for upward mobility for will through education. Reestablish our moral authority in the world-get out of the war in Iraq. Beacon of morality–not as difficult as it seems. We have to change the way people feel about us by being their benefactor. John agrees with Gordon Brown. We need to educate people around the world Middle East, Africa, etc. so they don’t have to rely on madrases for their education. We can provide clean water, sanitation, microlending. John would travel the world and give a new face for America. This won’t change on a dime, but faster than changes in education will be accomplished. We have young people around the world who are trying to decide if they are with us or against us. If we’re providing their education they might feel different. We drove them away. We have the capacity to change their opinion.

I have to say one thing. I know my answers are always too long.

John has started this community action corps (2000 groups across the country). We don’t tell them what to do. We tell them to see what needs to be done in their community and do it. They don’t have to campaign for them, but if they want to they can. They see [through their experience] they have the power to make change.

One thing that sets him apart. He believes we can individually accomplish things. If what John was offering was more of the same I wouldn’t have made the decision to support him to run. It had to be that he can change things through the campaign. He wants to make dynamic changes in this country and the world.

I have Stevie Wonder coursing through head. Granted I’ve changed the words a bit, but sing with me.

Isn’t he lovely? Isn’t he wonderful?
Isn’t he precious? More than thirty years old.
I never knew through blogging I’d be
Reading someone as lovely as he
But isn’t he lovely the one who blogs with love.

And who is this man? Why the amazing Kevin Charnas of course!

I nominated this post by Kevin for the April Perfect Post award. Honestly, there were a few more that followed that could have easily been nominated as well, but I’m impulsive and sent in my nomination the minute I read it. There were also these posts in April too.

Please take some time to go visit Kevin and read much more than this post. He is alternately the funniest, snarkiest, most sensitive and large-hearted person around. Oh, and I think he’s okay too.

This month I nominate this post about his parents by Kevin Charnas as the Perfect Post.

I started reading Kevin by way of Jessica at Oh The Joys. At the time, he was modeling for us all of his potential Halloween costumes and I was hooked immediately. Kevin’s wry and outrageous humor kept me coming back, but in between his hysterical storytelling he has woven some beautiful tributes to the people and ideas he is passionate about–and the post I nominated is one such example. Please take a few minutes to visit with Kevin and hear about the love he has for his parents. As a mom, I could only hope my sons would feel the same way about me some day.

The Perfect Post Awards
Each month the wonderful ladies over at Petroville and Suburban Turmoil host the Perfect Post awards. Bloggers are encouraged to nominate their favorite posts from the past month for such an award. Please go over to their sites to check out the other nominees for January.