At school, I had many fights as a kid. I cannot remember any of them. Why? Well, soon after each fight, we shook hands and made up. The scrapes and bloody noses are long forgotten. However, what I do seem to remember, are the keyboard fights, those battles fought via the written word; on forums, in e-mail, or on paper. It seems so much more difficult to shake hands and make up after word fights. Truly the pen is mightier than the sword. The wounds run deeper, take longer to heal and burden us in our future exchanges.
Someone “owns” this forum and has invested a lot of time, energy, money, blood, sweat and tears in this on-line community. A bunch of people also help moderate this forum and as far as I know, do it in their own time, are unpaid and to be honest, do a marvellous job, given the diversity of its members and the colossal variety of subject matter discussed. I suspect this is hard work and I wouldn’t be too surprised if some of these folks might even lose some sleep when confronted with an issue that requires them to intrude into a post. For their efforts in operating and steering this IIS ark – I thank them.
Very rarely are these folks the recipients of even a little praise – bless their hearts; more often, they appear to be blamed when something doesn’t go our way.
The main topic here is astronomy; not religion, sex, drugs, politics or rock and roll. If I want politics or religion I’ll go and join a forum that specialises in the stuff. If I want astronomy, I’ll dwell here a while longer.
I’m a bit thick at times so in my thickness, all alone with my keyboard, I’ll write, and post something that to me, smells as sweet as roses and wouldn’t hurt a fly. I’ll try to craft my words so they just cannot be misunderstood, and then I’ll hit the “Post” button.
Lo and behold, when those words are received, by 100’s of different eyes and ears, in unbounded states of receptivity, they will be filtered and interpreted in ways I could never have imagined. Those words, once released, will also reveal much about me; how I think and feel; my prejudices, both conscious and unconscious. Well, if I’m that fallible, and took so much care and time word smithing my post, how can I expect a 3rd party who doesn’t know me from a bar of soap to wholly understand what I intended, when they just take a moderators helicopter fly-over my words?
I have learned to live with being wrong or being misunderstood and my older, wiser self endeavours to look into my own heart when I am involved in a conflict. What part did I play? In the end, if I find that I was not lacking, I can still find comfort in that knowledge and don’t really need the world to validate me. Yes, maybe it would be nice, but is it really necessary? Is my ego really that important?
So, I’ll dust myself off, shake hands and move on, till the next time when surprise, surprise, it gets easier to cope because I’m thinking more clearly and not carrying the baggage and wounds of battles past. Well, mostly anyway. I still stuff up, badly at times, so thanks for accommodating one tiny ego and accepting me, warts and all, in this wonderful community.
Well, I got this far so whilst I’m here, I would like to say this place rocks. We have so much more in common than where we differ; Mike and the mods make it a nice place to hang out and above all, so does everyone else in whatever way they contribute.
By the way, isn’t it weird that all these skirmishes involve only us blokes?
Is it genetic?
Cheers
Dennis
... may look like double standards but lets see it as flexible in the best possible way
back.
