Posted by Dinah on July 7, 2013, at 17:46:01
In reply to Re: respecting old members » Dinah, posted by zazenducke on July 6, 2013, at 15:44:06
> I think Babble should celebrate Lou and try to build a community of people looking for a place with a resident prophet....
I've been thinking about this, and I think you've hit the mark in describing Babble at its best - although I certainly wouldn't have phrased it in quite the same way. It *is* a community wise enough and generous enough to have a place for a resident prophet, and an ironic Australian, and a girl who loved Bob Crane. It's a place where people can go to find help, and just as importantly where people can go to help others. Where people can recognize the wisdom of someone who might not have all the degrees, and also recognize that someone with all the degrees (Hi, Dr. Bob) may not have all the wisdom. It's a place that can delight in a duck singing show tunes, if the duck wishes to sing.
Which doesn't mean that the community shouldn't have community guidelines, and it doesn't mean that the prophets and poets and singing ducks and Crane-loving girls and wise souls and ones with all the degrees don't need to acknowledge and respect those guidelines.
What it *also* needs is understanding of each other. How can we be a genuine (if online) community if we don't make an effort to genuinely understand each other? When I was writing about Lou and prophecy, I wasn't intending disrespect. I was *reminding* myself of who Lou is and why Lou does what he does. Just as I remind myself that showtune singing ducks hate what they see as injustice, and do their best to counter it. And that girls who love Bob Crane have positive views of authority and high expectations of authority, as well as a dislike of seeing people hurt while others may not have positive views or high expectations of authority, but may equally dislike seeing people hurt.
Nor do I really think it is disrespectful to try to see people as they see themselves. I didn't say anything about Lou he hasn't said about himself, and I tried to do it neutrally in terms of my thoughts about his beliefs. Because my thoughts about his beliefs aren't really the important thing.
What we want isn't so different. The specifics of what presses our buttons may be different, and the views of how our goals can be achieved may be different. Our styles are different. But I think you and I would both like to see a Babble where people are accepted and where hurt is minimized.
(And thank you for pointing out he'd apologized for that. I hadn't read Babble in nearly a month, and didn't read the entire thread in great depth. I agree that things people have apologized sincerely for should not be brought up over and over against them.)
poster:Dinah
thread:1046441
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130706/msgs/1046719.html