Long Live the King!

[Daz Sparks 1,539]

2 hours ago, sonyc said:

Blimey Daz, that is very kind indeed. Thank you! I sometimes wish I could be more like you in response to posts that are insulting. You will often say something in a way I wish I could. Often with your trademark humour too. That is some skill to have.

Mrs S would say to me "you've been stalked when you think about it" (I hadn't but on reflection perhaps she is right?). Yet, I've not been unduly bothered if so. Though, she is right in that it did make a decision for me to stop posting. Avoidance is a tactic that works but arguably only in certain situations, not as a panacea.

I'm serious in saying that my initial reaction was surprise as if I didn't deserve your comments (and @horsefly and @Barbe bleu) ...yet in my latter years one thing I have learned is to be graceful in accepting compliments, because they are earnestly, honestly, thoughtfully given. 

I used to reject any compliments outright and reflect now with embarrassment how ungrateful and cold it was to do so. I used to prefer giving rather than receiving until I realised a gift received so well by another person made my day...I suppose that's a bit like the concept of 'inverted snobbery', or nowadays 'humble bragging' (which I see on TV and other media quite a bit) when it feels honourable to do something but actually it is selfish and false.

I'm a happier reader than a poster overall. I think so anyway. In trying to make posts I end up too often going 'long'!

i like 99.5% of comments I reckon. I believe I've said before, even by those I disagree with. The vast majority I can find something to think about and if anything, whatever makes me more uncertain about the world is a massive bonus. Too often, as we get older, we depend more on our life experience, experience which is often limited. No matter whether we think we know more or not. We never can.

In 20 years I've learned so much from other posters on this forum. The range of knowledge is genuinely amazing..What's not to like? And to find a whole community that thinks and encounters the world much the same as me is affirming too. You feel far less alone.

I'm sure about one thing - the intellect here far surpasses my own. I realise I am far more limited in my education than I thought. That's what I mean by learning.  Many posters amaze me both in their depth but also in the breadth of their knowledge and many in their sheer articulacy. I could name very many. Astonishing for a football forum because it means it's a microcosm of society. I know no other place like it. It's the best in the UK. We have such a wide spectrum here. Surely, that is a fantastic thing.

Then there's the humour! It dissolves a lot of anger. Seneca would say that the great antidote or remedy to anger is delay. He is right too. Of course - he would be. These things have been thought about hundreds of years before us! Maybe when posters are angered they might take a pause. I reckon it's a powerful thing to do.

I'm actually happy if RTB posts but don't agree with his ideas that the world is a jungle or a paradise. It's neither is it. 

It is a struggle to find contentment when world events are often absurd or unexpected or shocking or sad or quite often, very unjust. 

Yet, whatever happens, posters...even he...can post their reactions to things here and have an exchange, an audience if you like. And in that exchange, there is a relationship, in fact, there is care too (doesn't the derivation of that word come from 'curiosity'?). That is what this forum does. It facilitates.

After reading a while the personalities shine through. And I love it. It doesn't matter one bit in the end about Labour or the Conservatives as it's all a bit irrelevant in relation to the matter of our own mortality. That approaches some faster than others. We owe it to ourselves just to try and enjoy what we can, while we can. And that means being as respectful as we can, whenever we can. That's my take in posting anyway. If folk still wish to get angry then that's for them. It's a waste of time for me. It changes nothing but your own physiology.

Thank you so much for the kindness you've offered. It is accepted very happily. Maybe I'm not the "far too kind" sort of 'lefty' after all. Who knows, maybe there are lots about.

Thank you for all the likes too of your post. I'm very humbled indeed.

This is why we have all missed your posting sonyc, as usual, a thoughtful, intelligent and insightful piece of writing. in fact after reading it again, it's a cracking post, even better than that it is a article that would be worthy of a better, at least more widely read platform. I enjoyed it sonyc, thanks for taking the time.

I sincerely hope you rejoin as a participant, even if it less than before, I would certainly appreciate it. This one post alone has given me quite a lot to think on, and in a good way. Also, I have learned to today that at least one person enjoys my humour!!

Thanks again sonyc.

OTBC