My journey has brought me back to this blog on this gorgeous Wednesday morning. But today's topic isn't my journey.
Honestly, this whole post makes me wonder how much Threnody understands about why OTHER people are writing. (By the way, I know of two other blogs now that have addressed the Untwisting blog; kind of interesting that, but it's a different topic that perhaps I'll get into on a different day.) I can't speak for them, but my reasons for writing had very little to do with Lalaith and Threnody at all. That's why I didn't announce my blog to them, post comments on their blog (I've posted one response to the one that was addressed to me), or anything of the sort. I informed Lalaith about it simply because she's my friend and I didn't want her to find out about it another way and feel like I'd been secretly raging against her or her new beliefs.
But Threnody seems to think there is some other reason. Like I said, maybe for others there is. You can check out my reasons on my "What This Is All About" page. For me, I don't expect her to explain herself. I never expected her to write whole posts about what I had said. It never even occurred to me that that was a possibility. I expected to be entirely ignored.
So it strikes me as funny every time she says things like, "I don't need to prove anything to you" or "I'm not writing for you." When you say things like that, you're basically defending yourself. It's not in a argumentative way; it's in an evasive way. If she cared so little about what anybody thought or why anyone was reading the blog, why the need to keep clarifying that she's not doing it for us?
Maybe she hates people misunderstanding things and gets a little OCD about it or something; but still, that would mean that she DOES care. If the opinions of people on the internet that she doesn't know don't matter, why would she need to write an entire post that's addressing our apparent misunderstandings?
Hopefully, you can see from this how I have a hard time believing her claim.
However, my husband has taught me something that I try to practice: giving people the benefit of the doubt. It's not something I'm very good at. I'm a suspicious person; I don't trust people easily. I have to work at it. Reading Threnody's post, I find it very hard to believe that she wrote that only for her benefit; I can't see how that could be; BUT, that's what she said it was for. It's not for us; it's for her and Lalaith.
So, at this juncture, I'm going to choose to believe her as much as I can, to think that there is another way of looking at things that I haven't seen, and that's how it all makes sense. Because this is all a matter of opinion and perspective. As she has previously pointed out, I am not God and I cannot know all her motives. As far as I recall, the Bible doesn't speak directly to this kind of situation, so I can choose to believe her or choose to believe my logic. I'm going to choose to believe her.
It's an interesting dilemma to write things that are posted on the Internet. Are they public? Are they private? If they are on the Internet, they are going to be seen; if they were meant to be private, why are they on the Internet? I will admit, perhaps I do care more than I should (and perhaps more than I say) about how people respond to what I write, whether on "Untwisting the Tangled Web" or on "Threnody's WoW." And it is easy for me to get caught up in this neverending cycle of "well she/he/it didn't understand me so I must clarify, or I must defend myself or my beliefs!" And I will admit that I've gotten caught up in that. (Perhaps even this comment springs from that?)
ReplyDeleteIn my private journals, I have posts without number addressed to specific people (and most of the rest addressed to God). Did any of those posts actually make it to the one they were addressed to? Very few. Were they meant for them? Not really. So in some ways, that I how I write for Untwisting. Perhaps a better analogy would be an autobiography. Is an autobiography written to convince people of something? Usually not, though it may employ convincing language. It is written to convey a journey. That is our goal with Untwisting; to convey the journey we are still undertaking with those who might wish to share it. Sometimes, I'll admit, I stray from that purpose. But that, in language as clear as I can make it, is our purpose.
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ReplyDeleteHi, Clayton. Yes, I was referring to your blog as one of the "other two." In the future should you want to post comments on here, could you please refrain from anything that might be construed as name-calling? (I'm talking about the "blood-stained poet" thing. Also, don't rename people's things - like their blog; that's just rude.) I don't know how Threnody would feel about it, but let's just not even have that possibility, yeah? If it happens again, your comments will be summarily deleted.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in the future, if you feel like rambling - cause dude, that was a RAMBLE, lol - please go do it on your blog. :) That's not what mine is for.
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ReplyDeleteSo because you're not the first person that makes it okay? Well, then Threnody shouldn't take any grief for leaving Christianity or cutting or, well, anything. "Nothing new under the sun."
ReplyDeleteYou're entitled to your creativity; you're not entitled to it on MY BLOG.
No, the response of believers should NOT be to be petty jerks. It's the name of a blog. They should be able to name it what they want without being berated for it.
P.S. I don't allow "Anti-" anyone on here. Take it somewhere else.
This is feartodoubt. Take a look at this. Take a look at II John. And if that be true, and you claim to follow the Bible, how is it that you can claim the things you do of them? It is these kind of actions from people that make me doubt Christianity in the first place. Either follow your whole Bible and prove it true, or show the world that it's a fraud.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. No commenting on your blog from now on. I get way to emotional over this stuff.
ReplyDeleteseriosome.wordpress.com
Not content with attempting to denigrate me on my own blogs (or praying for my death...in case you were wondering, he's the one), Clayton comes here to do it? I'm not dissing Clayton, or at least not trying to, but seriously: Not two days ago he told me to "stay the away from him." Yet he remains curiously unable to stay away from me.
ReplyDeletehttp://seriosome.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/notice/
ReplyDeleteFor the next big post. PS. We get around 79-200 visitors per day. So this will probably bring some traffic to your blogs. :)
Well, this got out of hand. So no more free commenting. Now you have to be approved. 'Cause people are disrespectful and can't follow the rules and guidelines that are plainly laid out for them. I'm feeling a LONG post coming on about the immaturity of people at large. . . . .
ReplyDeleteClayton, just to tell you, no more advertising will be accepted. That's not what this is about.
Freetodoubt, if you don't address people, it's a little hard to tell what you're addressing specifically.
Threnody, normally I'd consider this whole thing an argument (aside from your first comment) and worth deleting - the argument isn't even on topic! - but since it's the first time, everybody is getting a free pass.