<![CDATA[the ABC of writing a blog, and invoking hate speech and candyfloss]]>i used to think a blog was just a way to get your thorts down… in a public space because yes someone else might be interested in hearing what you think; or else it was an opportunity to make some laugh or challenge someone about life and living; and of course the opportunity to have moments of complete randomness, because i like random. it helps fill in the gaps.

but i’m learning that that is not what writing a blog is all about at all [i love sentences that allow you to have the word “that” twice in a row and still make sense] and so here is my breakdown of one way blog-writing works [that involves hate speech, personal attack and waves of candyfloss]

[A] i write a blog about a topic

[B] someone makes a comment off topic and starts a heated discussion when i politely respond to them which generates into a heated debate

[C] somewhere further down someone joins in and backs their unrelated-to-blog debate and throws in a personal attack either directed at me [“you hate animals”] or else Christians [“christians hate animals”]

[D] from their many years of experience of knowing me and having any idea of what i am about one of the above people will make an absolute statement summing up who i am as a person [“you write blogs because you are desperate to receive all the fame that comes with writing blogs” – hm, they may have spelt “defame” wrong]

that is one way it goes and then eventually i might get tired of approving comments that are unrelated to the original blog and causing destraction and so may even refuse to approve one or two [hardly ever happens] and even delete a couple to clear up the blog which brings in its own wave of “you always” and “christians never” statements

there is another way of achieving the same results i have found:

[A] starts with a friendly request – “hey there, i really like orangutangs, do you think you could make a link to my ‘i love orangutangs’ site because i would really like that

[B] i reply with an honest, “i choose not to like that site because i choose not to given that i have a right to choose to like or not like a site and i don’t particularly like this one”

[C] friendly request changes tone – “you are evil and hate animals and so do all christians and you probably kill baby seals for fun and don’t put the toilet seat down”

[D] i smile. because i realise once again that writing a blog or a weekly thort or recording a podcast is not as simple and straightforward as i imagined and i stop for a second and wonder to myself if there will ever come a day when someone writes a comment related to the blogpost above it. but then i return to reality.

how am i able to smile and keep smiling? engage and keep engaging? love and keep loving? hope and keep hoping?… well, as my good friend Dr Seuss once wrote: “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

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