Unreliable Sources

I introduced the 100 Day Writing Challenge today, and as inspiration, (and a bit of a brag, I guess) I told the young writers, as I always do, how many days in a row it has been that I've written (5,109). At this point, the number is beyond their life span and hence beyond their comprehension, but they, like past groups, become fixated on finding my blog. "It's public," I tell them, "But it's also my personal writing, so you are welcome to read it, if you find it."

Over the years, I've done a pretty good job of scrubbing any searchable connection with my name and this blog. Not perfect; it's been found before, but not easily. Today the search took on familiar outlines of years past. "Is it your facebook?" someone asked.

I shook my head.

"Your pinterest? Your Twitter? Your Instagram?" 

"Is it this?" They show me a picture of myself from the school website. 

Then a kid raised his hand. "I'm only telling you this for your safety," he reported quite seriously. "Here is your address! And your age! And people you know!" The identity website he had found astounded and alarmed him.

"That's just a website based on public records," I told him. "You could probably find similar information about your parents. Stop looking for my blog and start writing."

A little while later, while kids were supposed to be composing their first slices of life, I noticed a girl staring at her screen, both hands covering her mouth in horror. "Is this true?" she asked in a low voice. "How could it be?" and she began to weep.

I stepped behind her to see what she was looking at. It was an identity website with the name of a woman who shared this student's last name. Her age was reported to be 93. "Is that your great-grandmother?" I asked. 

"My aunt," she told me, "but I thought she died! How can she be 93?"

Both I and the girl next to her tried to reassure her that the site was a mechanical gathering of information. It didn't really know anything, but we were unsuccessful. That kid left her half-believing that a woman who died in 2016 was alive and well somewhere.

"Talk to your parents about that website," I told her as she walked out the door.

"Oh, I will, she said. "I sure will."