I was going to deconstruct Tom's link... but you know... I really can't be bothered. It would have just been me showing off how clever I could be and being creative with language, knocking down an argument, dancing on pinheads of words. And also life's too short and too fragile to dance on pinheads. Sometimes just cutting and pasting can be the blogging version of vomiting ideas from another site.
I'm always keen to hear the "I" thought rather than "an eminent thinker says" unless the eminent thinker is bringing something to bear on what you're saying or is able to make your point better or has done it before. (Like I'm going to do at the end)
It's late. I'm tired and just posting a link which you've pulled a huge chunk from doesn't make you right, the winner or anything. Just makes you handy with a cut and paste function. I think that's what I responded to on the "why gay people should vote tory" post.
Homophobia is a nasty nasty thing. I agree the word is a terrible compound word created out of the political mix of the 60's, homosexual is a badly crafty word but it's a word that carries less political connotations than queer, poof, fag or gay. Too often the words to describe LGBT people started as words of hatred.
I'm not fond of any of those words to describe who I am. They all carry too much baggage for my liking. The words were needed to categorise people, label them effectively and, hopefully, in naming it find ways of which to control and know it.
I don't want the world to agree with me, God knows, I have some fringe opinions on things that don't need to get out there. But can we gather around the idea that there's horrible acts of violence, acts of injustice and mistreatment dumped on "people like me" (insert word of choice to describe same sex/gendered attraction). Society is wired up in a heteronormative way (I loved that word at uni!), until there's equality for everyone everywhere no matter what there's always going to be a them and us culture. There's always going to be winners, losers and people being imprisoned, marginalised and killed for stuff they have no control over. We might as well be beheading people for the colour of their eyes as their sexuality.
I love it when people disagree with me. Some of my biggest revelations have come from a "No, Ben, you're wrong moment" but those moments are always done with a sense of gentleness and a huge dollop of grace. Truth without grace is deadly, toxic and doesn't do anyone any good.
I guess I'm going to sleep on thoughts of a new comments policy. Part of me doesn't want to have to engage in some of the more murky stuff that gets posted. And I've deleted spam and hate comments because they're spam and hate comments. I guess I need to think about where I draw that line.
And you'll see I'm doing all this thinking out loud, in the open. I hope Tom doesn't see this as a personal attack because it very much isn't. (If you've read my letter to the past you'll see what I think)
The very idea of deleting comments doesn't sit well with me. I'm not a fan of censorship. I believe everyone has a right to speak their mind without fear. But again, I come back to grace. A mind spoken without gentleness or grace is just like taking a hammer to people. If I hear you say something I disagree with and I'm hearing with grace then I'll be able to gentle offer my opinion back to you with grace. It ceases to be a point scoring argument about who can posture best and becomes an exchange of ideas from the very heart of someone. And that's beautiful.
Hear this post from where I've written it. I don't want to have to start allowing or disallowing anyone's comments. But I also don't want to to end up with muddy footprints over my blog that make me feel sad.
Frank McGuinness WB Yeats said "Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric. Out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry". (I always thought it was Frank McGuinness!) I struggle with myself every day. Many are the days when I see myself as being broken, incomplete and a work in progress. And when I'm not shooting at myself from the kitchen window of my soul or wrestling with myself over various issues, I'm probably trying to take in a new point of view, learn a lesson or just hold things together.
I'm trying my best to be honest, authentic and real. Lest I get a horrid reputation as a sarcastic person. The only problem when you're honest authentic and real is that you expose the chinks in your armour...
