first of all
There are too many ehugs and not enough discussion.
Sometimes a blogger, a friend, is feeling down and they need your support. Ehugs are not support. Get up off your butt and go to them, or call them, or message them personally.* Leaving an ehug where everyone else who reads the blog can read it and think, “Wow, what a wonderful friend he must be,” is lazy and self-serving.
The topics frequently broached topics in the blogernacle…
Idolatry
The worth of souls
The myth of celibacy
The option to straight-marry
Homosexuals’ place in the Plan of Salvation
Etc.
…are weighty, weighty issues. They should be given a proper look. We owe it to ourselves to do so.
After all, if we don't take our concerns seriously, who will?
*That goes double for whenever a blogger is posting about suicide.
+++
good tune
http://djpretzel.web.aplus.net/songs/Castlevania_Wicked_Orchestra_OC_ReMix.mp3
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7 comments:
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven... a time of war, and a time of peace"
Playa, I don't begrudge you or anyone else the right to make strong statements, and to debate. I read everything you write, and I read what others have to say.
At the same time I have found, after years of fighting some of these battles myself, that the way forward for me is to lay down arms and open myself up. Sometimes I have blinded myself to liberating truths by seeing everything as an us-or-them conflict.
The worst demons we must confront are "in here," not "out there." sometimes fighting blinds us from facing True Evil at its source: our own, beating, very human heart.
Ehugs are not support. Get up off your butt and go to them, or call them, or message them personally.
You're probably right.
Leaving an ehug where everyone else who reads the blog can read it and think, “Wow, what a wonderful friend he must be,” is lazy and self-serving.
This is a temptation built in to the blogging format. Much is blogged that should probably remain unblogged, or be penned in a private journal if it must be written at all.
But at the same time, I wouldn't want people to be afraid to share something valuable because they worry about being judged as "lazy and self-serving." I'd rather encourage people to write, to not censor themselves, and let the reader sort out what needs to be taken with a grain of salt and what is helpful.
if we don't take our concerns seriously, who will?
Oh, I take this all deadly seriously. Far too seriously to "fight." (Most of the time.)
I don't mean to imply that posting one's innermost thoughts is a bad idea. I mean commenting on a post with some flowery, positive-action sentences isn't helping.
Go to that person as best you can and help them.
I appreciate your passion and spirit to fight - it gets me thinking and that's what dialogue is all about.
But as for "flowery positive-action sentences" not helping, I disagree. For some of us, there isn't any other forum than this blog community to discuss feelings regarding these issues. We aren't out in any way, shape or form. Sometimes, receiving a confirming ehug is enough of a sustaining influence to keep going and not giving up!
I'm all for action and "getting off my butt" and going to the person and hugging him/her with gusto and passion. I'm all for reaching out and being pro-active and risking to be involved in others' lives - but sometimes it can also be done with a positive reinforcement of an ehug, when that may be all that one can do.
What's your real gripe here?
My gripe isn't the existence of ehugs or the practice of ehugging.
My gripe is that we, as bloggers, limit ourselves to ehugs when the situation calls for much more substantial actions/discussions.
playa
I like your idea that discussion is important and that these issues you mention are weighty issues. Of the five topics you list above, I find the last three the MOST interesting. Speaking out of my interests, then, I suggest you pick one of these and offer a few of your thoughts or explain your current thinking. I think there are those here who will be happy to engage in some serious discussion with you. In short, at this particular time, are you most interested in the celibacy/abstinence issue or the straight-marriage issue or the plan of salvation? Let's have a little discussion right here if you want to pick one of these topics.
Okay. I'll build a post on one of those topics and have it up by Thursday morning.
Playa, some of us aren't very comfortable writing, let alone talking about these issues. Be patient with us as we work things out in our minds and hearts. We know our attempts to communicate are often feeble at best.
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