Stormy's thread is still locked (it's a.m., and I'm guessing you're at work). And Portia's Conflict #2 thread is very witty, I don't want to be "dry" on that one. Portia, I love your way with words. Sometimes I like to dabble with that myself, but I'm truly just a beginner. Probably not my true calling.
Just wanted to say that I do agree there is some kind of pattern with the conflict. If it is a weekday v. weekend pattern, I suspect that has something to do with people's level of busy-ness. Work schedules. It seems like most people here work Monday thru Friday. Weekends might be the time when all the pent up stuff can roll on out. Time to think. More energy to say things.
Maybe the pattern is internal to the people involved. Sort of that burst of energy when things build up or courage takes over or a "what the hell have I got to lose" idea pops up and risks are taken with words. So many reasons for people bringing up difficult things. Then the retreat. Need to nurse their wounds, digest the new info, maybe decide what direction in which to turn a new corner. So many reasons for individual quietness.
Then you've got wildcards. Someone might decide to post under an alias. For the first time, or maybe again after a little hiatus. So, suspicion creeps in. And understandably so. One of the many interesting things I learned in a Psychology/Religion class is that
"possibility does not lead to reality, reality leads to possibility".
And it is so easy to get caught up in that worrisome cycle. If only it were as easy to take life as it comes and let tomorrow just happen in all it's hopefullness. Just let people
be in all their hopefullness. Better to believe in possibility than to be trapped by the "reality" of what has already happened.
I love all the different personalities here. All of them. With some I keep my distance, true. Those people make it interesting when I'm open to that. If I'm not open to it, well, I'm learning to cut myself some slack. If my heart is feeling unreasonable on some particular day, let enough time pass, and I can be different and open again. Just because I was closed before in some particular situation, doesn't have to lock me into that same behavior for always.
On the laughter thread I didn't really have anything to add. Then Anansi posts that video [with the warning, which was wise]. I went and viewed it right away and
shrieked with laughter! But I didn't have the guts to say that on the laughter thread because I just know there are others who would have an opposite reaction, which is fine. I was just afraid someone might judge me to be disrespectful. I was afraid that if that happened, I would feel hurt. Hence my shiny armor.
But I have said other things on this site that I thought might bring judgment upon myself. And that didn't happen. At any rate, nobody tried to make me leave. I don't know if it is because of the way I put things, which I do make great efforts with, or if my foibles aren't so horrendous as I tell myself. At any rate, getting to stay here does help me grow as a person.
This is the stuff that came to mind upon reading the other opinions posted during the past couple of days. Probably could say more but I do have to get ready for my day and the coming weekend which is going to be pretty busy for a change here in my neck of the woods.
And Hops, thanks for coming over to the bank to play! It was fun playing hide and seek in the reeds and cattails. I think it's kind of exciting sometimes to make our own manageable adventure
!
Pennyplant
