Naming Names and Spilling Secrets!

        This is a question I have privately pondered. I've considered posing it many times and in many places.

What, if any, are the ethics of autobiography? How much consideration must one give the lives of others, those lives intersecting one's own life, when telling one's own story?

        I'd write more autobiographical articles but I wonder just how much it is legitimate to say about other people, people who aren't famous, people who just happened to cross paths with my existence. Do I not have a right to tell my own story? In the telling, how much of their stories is it just and all right to share?

        At least twice recently on JU the ethics of autobiography have been questioned. PoetMom's son objected to being portrayed within her blog, even though we have no way of knowing who he actually is, and Trina was harshly criticized for writing about her emotions and reactions to a friend's serious illness.

        The flood of emotions unearthed by brushing against my high school past has practically compelled me to start typing out my story. These questions continue to hold me back.

        So I ask you, dear readers, what are the ethics of autobiography? Are there any? Or is anything that comes into my life subject to exiting out my keyboard? If one takes the Truman Capote position of "What did they expect? I'm a writer!" should one automatically expect the Truman Capote ostracism backlash?