I am truly sorry to have caused such upset, especially here in the Moon Garden. And I apologize in advance for my long post.
Mika's right - I sounded defensive and should have worded things differently. (
Mika, I apologize for causing such trouble.)
Junie, I and my colleagues go on about pendantry all the time (a pitfall we at my job all fall into regularly) so I didn't think about it having a more harsh connotation outside and I should have. I sincerely regret using the word.
I do stand by what I was trying to express. First, I want to stress that I in no way meant to suggest any topic wasn't good or welcome. I love the variety - love deep discussions. It was more the
how things were being said and conclusions drawn -- and even that not such a big deal. I thought it would be okay to voice my thoughts on it and I guess I handled it badly.
I thought, rightly or wrongly, that a couple of recent remarks were maybe condescending in reference to people who didn't want to play in a certain topic or who asked about more accessible language or who did want to talk about a music video, etc. And I explained already that I just didn't agree with rather dismissive statements about people - in this case those who may enjoy untrained as well as trained voices. A small issue reallly but seemed to me lately sometimes casual remarks didn't come across as thoughtful as I'd always found the MG. And I knew that wasn't the intent. I'm sorry to have contributed to that in my own way unintentionally.
With everyone's permission, I will stay and listen, maybe post sometimes something just pretty, but I won't post anything like this again and I'll stay out of chat.
I will say that I don't get how one not terribly fiery post from an atop non-entity could result in tears, a dramatic (luckily temporary) leave taking and the suggestion that I was trying to take away an element of refuge.
In my last not-heavily-self-censored post, I will say that if we are going to complain about lack of diverse opinion being encouraged in main thread and about people always having to be positive, maybe we should lead with benefit of a doubt? Maybe calmly engaging me, arguing with me - or even ignoring me - would have been other options?
I think one of the reasons we all self censor is to avoid disturbing the group - and, as others have said that can create a chilling effect on discussion. (I'll admit I'm shaken enough by this myself that I am going to sit firmly in the gallery for a bit of while - even peeking in will feel stressful at first I think. As
mszue pointed out, it is your turf)
I know this won't carry any weight at all now :(, but I have always been a fan of you guys and it is my greatest hope you feel free to forget about this, return and carry on as if nothing . After all, it was just
one person (not a pile on which I really love about the Moon Garden) and not a very important one.
Everyone who comes here, please know you have my forever gratitude for sharing your Adam love, gentle spirits, and beautiful thoughts.
I don't think I ever posted my favorite Adam images - this would certainly be one so I'll leave this as an offering. I loved Adam talking to the kids on the singing show.