I haven't been blogging much lately–and frankly, it's because a lot that's been going on in my world isn't the sort of stuff you blog about. They're things for self-blogging: diaries, journals, and maybe letters to a select few. Maybe a secure blog with paid membership. ( 🙂 ) In any case, the long litany of things I can't blog about has had me reflecting on the role of the inner editor in all of us.

Most people have an inner editor–that part of our concious mind that formats our public thoughts before release, and tries to make them acceptable to the audience. The editor isn't there from the start–we learn slowly what's acceptable to say in public, or what to say to certain people, mostly from trial and error as we grow up.

Sometimes, the editor is off getting coffee, and we don't think about what we're saying before it comes out…the results are often embarrassing, or hurtful, or come back to haunt us later, or all of the above in some combination.

I've met some people who don't have an internal editor (or who've bound and gagged their internal editors and thrown them in closets within their minds, at least); they have a non-stop express from thought to mouth, and not even their foot can stop them from bursting something out. These people are alternatingly entertaining, frustrating, and frightening to watch, depending on what topic they happen to drift off to.

(Once upon a time, I thought