The Contract

I recently received a contract via email from my hairdresser. I gotta tell you, this is one of the strangest things ever. People, including me, love contracts. I won't work without one, even for people I have worked with for years. It gives a sense of security, the feeling that you have covered your bases and outlined expectations. But, contracts are by no means iron-clad guarantees of anything.

So, while thinking about this contract in which I would agree to be on time, ask her to fix haircuts I was unhappy with, "within reason" as she won't provide refunds, promising to cancel my appointments within 24-hours (she has a kid, certainly she knows the whole world can shift no less than 5 minutes before an appointment) and promising to give her notice if I am going to find someone else, I wondered what else I would like contracts for.

How about a contract for blogging.

I promise to provide updates as frequently as possible or as deemed necessary by the random, disappointing, celebratory, amazing and humiliating moments of my life. I promise to provide photo documentation when appropriate, a sense of relativity and keep anonymity of parties who have not authorized release of their identities. I promise to make myself vulnerable and seemingly expose my insecurities, anxieties and compulsions. I promise to share the moments that connect all of us as one--as wives, mothers, daughters, sisters and friends. And, I promise to write interesting entries that are neither too short or too long, too sappy or too depressing.

And you, what do I expect from you?

You promise to comment (on the blog, not just in emails to me), pass the blog address along to your friends and provide insight into what makes a good entry. Why is this important? This is the whole point about blogging often lost on people older than me--blogging is about sharing and how do you know you have shared something unless someone tells you? My mom never understands it. "And, is the goal for strangers and other people to read the blog?" she always asks. Yes, that is the goal!

So, let me revise the blog contract. I promise to share. You promise to share. The end.