With these thoughts in my mind I start to type:
Gossip is not good. Gossip to me is defined as saying something malicious about someone, intentionally hurtful.
Relating events that happen involving people does not, to my mind, constitute gossip. Saying good things about people-can that be bad?
Telling stories depicting people in a negative way who aren't present to defend themselves isn't fair, but may be accurate. Who said life was fair?
There is a remote possibility that someone who reads this blog may report what I've written to someone else who may misinterpret or interpret correctly what I say and offend someone I don't want to offend.
My intention is not to offend anyone. I don't set out to offend, but, obviously, I do or say things that do offend some people. It is unavoidable. I have my own opinion about things. So what? I have a right to my opinion. And, I have a right to publish that opinion, I do believe.
I do not have a right to say anything slanderous, nor would I attempt to slander someone. But, I refuse to shirk my duty to speak my mind. It wouldn't be America, would it, if I didn't speak my mind? Isn't that what Democracy and The First Amendment is all about? Free speech.
However, when I exercise my right to free speech it is bound to offend someone who chooses to take offense to someone who has an opinion different than theirs. Is that the way Democracy works? I don't think so.
Why aren't we all tolerant of each other and each person's right to have an opinion that may or may not be the same as ours? I'm happy to hear someone voice a different opinion. I am especially interested in listening to someone whose mind works in a way that is not like the general, run-of-the-mill mind. A thinker who has an original thought interests me. As you can see I don't have many original thoughts. Pretty much everything I have to say has been said before by someone else and very likely presented better. This fact does not stop me from writing or opining. I'm encouraged to write by a few loyal followers and so I continue for them and for me.
Caveat. If you find yourself offended, perhaps you need to think about why you've taken offense. Anyone can and will disagree, but it takes another leap to become offended.
Having said all that, which doesn't amount to much. I will continue.
Tonight we were invited to a cocktail party in Nokomis. Our friend, Ute, called some time ago. She left a message, I think, saying it was her task to find out if we were going to the O'Brien's tonight, March 20th.
We haven't been invited to the O'Brien's before. Somehow, I'm not sure how, maybe due to Ute's and Jack's suggestion? we were invited to tonight's cocktail party.
Many of the attendees live on East Chop during the Summer. Walking in the front door, actually before we arrived at the front door Patsy G. and her husband hailed us from their car as they drove up, was similar to walking into a house on East Chop, except the cedar shakes and ocean views were absent and the house happened to be situated on a canal in a gated community past a golf course in Florida about 30 minutes South of us.
It is always a nice feeling, I think, to be included or invited. Sometimes the invitation is nicer than the event. Tonight, we were happy to be invited and it was fun to see familiar faces in the off-season. Off-season Martha's Vineyard, High season, Florida.
What makes me hesitant to write about his party is this. If any or even some of the people who attended this party tonight were to find out about this blog and read it, I doubt they would be as inclusive in the future as they were tonight. There is something about full-disclosure that bothers some people. Some people do not want to read about themselves in another person's blog. Or have to consider the possibility that they might be the subject or given a passing mention in someone's blog. Some people have no interest in other people's opinions, unless they are similar to theirs.
The fear of exposure or the fear of being seen in a negative light is real when talking to the press. I was terribly misquoted in a newspaper article in New Jersey this last Fall/Winter. It is a helpless feeling to see your name in print, quoted erroneously, knowing the retraction, if there is one, won't be read by most of the people who read this utterly incorrect article. Is a blog any different? Yes, this blog is not read by the general public. The National Inquirer is a whole other story. (That is not where I was misquoted)
Today in the check out line at CVS I had a chance to read about Lisa Pressley. Could I have spelled The King's name incorrectly? The blog check thingie doesn't like the above spelling, I guess. Lisa is having problems with her weight. She has "ballooned up to 165" after the birth of her 4th child. She is 42. Elvis was 42 when he "ballooned" and died. etc. I'd kinda forgotten her marriage to Michael Jackson. I didn't follow their lives all that much.
Skip says The Inquirer could get a Pulitzer Prize for its expose of the politician who ran for President, was it? Whose wife has breast cancer. What's his name? (I do think Statins do have a negative effect on memory. Why not blame them?) I never warmed up to him. I was suspicious of his smile. Gave me the creeps. That and his multi-square feet house. The $300 or $400 hair cut, if that was true, did not endear me to him either. Or was it the Gov. of one of the Carolinas who went missing with a woman from South America he was having a torrid affair with. (I've always liked the expression, torrid affair. Why have a tepid affair?)
Back to the party. Skip has applied to be re-instated as a member of the East Chop Beach Club. The ECBC is a short walk or bicycle ride from where we'll be living this Summer. A place to socialize, have lunch, take a swim. Why not? Our host tonight is the current President of the ECBC. Nice guy. I used to play tennis with his wife at the Round Robin at the ECTC, but in the last couple of years I've stopped attending the Round Robin. They begin at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday. I've had a regular game at 8:00a.m. on Mondays which I enjoy. I'm not crazy about getting up at 6:30 two days in a row to play tennis. And with the shoulder problem I developed - some impingement problem, the Orthopedist told me. He said, "You on-line?" He wrote out the name of the condition. He left the room. Came back and sat behind me, holding a syringe. Smiling, he Insisted on shoving a needle into my shoulder, forcing Cortisone into the places oral medication wouldn't reach. I'm semi-cured. "Go easy on the overheads," the MD's advice.
It's late. I'll continue this another time or not. Gotta go. FAN PS I spoke at some length with "Elvis" today. He told me I asked him more questions than his last girlfriend. I apologized for being inquisitive. He didn't mind me asking questions, he told me. So now I know and soon the blog will know, more about "Elvis." Really, GG.
So, that's where East Choppers go in the winter. You know the story, Frieda, about the woman who will remain nameless (and dead) who recoiled in horror when someone mentioned that she was from Oak Bluffs and replied, "Oh no, I'm from East Chop."
ReplyDeleteWho is Lisa Pressley woman?