Ode to the anonymous poster

You know those things that are on your to-do list that just never seem to get done? One of mine is responding to comments left on my blog. I thoroughly enjoy reading all of your comments. I really do, but I'm not good at quipping back. Originally I saw blogging not as a way to engage in conversation but simply to promote the International Society for Kevin Consciousness. I also wanted people to feel free to say whatever they wanted to say without concern that I would post ridicule about them and their lesser -- I mean different -- opinions. I enjoy reading the occasional feisty comment and I wouldn't want to stifle that. But one anonymous poster has helped me change all that and become a better person.

In early July I wrote about the hits I get from people seeking photos of tricholtillomania, or the urge to pull out one's own hair. They land on my blog because of this post. Specifically I said that writing in a blog about the urge to pull out one's own eyelashes and eyebrows was effed up. Just yesterday this anonymous poster bent my ear with this:

No Kevin, the uninformed individuals like yourself are what's "effed" up about
this world. The fact that you make fun of medical conditions affecting millions
of people makes you the weirdo, not them.

Where do I begin?

I feel like I should use some caution here because I once got a similarly scolding comment when I wrote about the limbless wrestler who wrote a book. I called him a freak. So what? Anyway I got a comment from an anonymous poster who said some of my postings were crude. My sister responded with a follow-up comment saying that whoever that preceding anonymous poster was, he was probably just self-conscious about his club foot and coincidentally she was willing to pay five bucks to see it. As it turned out the anonymous finger shaker was my mother. You can imagine how proud she must be of her two youngest children. You can click here to learn about the whole debaucle. Anyway I've learned you never know who the anonymous poster is, so I feel I should be somewhat mindful of what I say in response.

My dearest anonymous poster, I am duely glad that you have found your way to enlightenment via cocktailswithkevin.com. However it concerns me that you think poking fun at self-mutilators should be discouraged. Perhaps when you look in the mirror you see a person devoid of any eyelashes or eyebrows because of your constant urge to pull them out. Maybe you have pulled to the point that you resemble a cancer patient currently undergoing chemotherapy (You know they're a laugh riot.) Maybe you're one of those who makes a meal of your own scabs. I don't know. What I do know is that your inability to see the humor in writing about freakish habits is unsound. You will be a happier person if you flush the psychotropic contents of your medicine cabinet down the toilet and just accept me as your Lord and Saviour.

Frankly what I found most interesting about the whole hair-pulling situation wasn't so much the actual act of pulling out the hairs. Like I said in my original post, I too am guilty of that. What I found bothersome to the point of being amusing was that people feel it necessary to write about their hair pulling. Not just write about it in their own personal diary but write about it for all to see. Why do they think we should care? If they were writing about family, human anomalies or their sock drawer I could understand it. But pulling out their hair? That's not newsworthy, is it?

I also find it funny that this poster passively claims that pulling your hair out is a condition. Does anyone remember at what point in human history we started recategorizing personal choices as conditions? Is D.A.D. (Disorder Addiction Disorder) a cultural universal or is this strictly an American thing? International readers, please fill us Yanks in.

Anyway, I do wish to thank this poster for helping me to be a better blogger. I will now make it a point to respond to comments that I get. And I promise not to be so uppity all the time.