Monday, December 12, 2005
Milestones Part II
Maybe it is just the recovery process from surgery (hey have I mentioned anywhere in my blog I've had surgery recently?) but I must have been a little confused yesterday when I posted Milestones Part I. I thought I was just shy of 5000 visits when I wrote the entry, but when I posted it I see I had 200 yet to go.... So I am about a week early commenting on the odometer turning over another digit.
More important though is what I would like to say now about differences and diversity. I had mentioned liking people with a tendency to polarize. When I got serious about blogging I did a lot of random surfing to see a lot of examples and get a feel for what blogging was all about. I visited hundreds and hundreds of sites and I found just a few that really struck me as a little out of the ordinary and wrote about them and listed them in my Links Mentioned section. At quite a few sites I dropped a comment or two and they in turn wrote back. For those that I found both engaging and who wrote back to me, I added them to the Friends of BNL section. I'm hardly the first to do this, and I know a lot of people do nothing but expand their presence on the web by getting into as many web-rings as they can. After I had my few friends I just stopped. At first it was about gaining exposure and I could have continued on in that vain, I might pick it up again in a limited way, but my point is I still visit my first few set of web friends from time to time. They are nothing like me, they often hold positions 180 degrees opposed to my own, but I respect them anyway because what they say is less important than the honesty with which they say it. I think a lot of people on the web and in life in general gather people around them of a like mind, but I say this is absolutely the wrong way to gather friends. It's OK to have friends that have the same interests as you, but when you like, respect, and have friends with whom you have little in common then you enlighten and broaden both yourself and them.
Pick friends of good character to be sure, but having a wide variety of friends is what helps connect the world and make it a better place. My own wife Nian and I come from completely different cultural backgrounds, but oh God I love her so. We argue politics and public policy all the time. We just got off the phone tonight arguing about how funds should be spent preventing airline tragedies in wake of the recent Midway accident in Chicago. Boy did the sparks fly, and boy did we have differing opinions, but we are both better off for hearing the other's views all the way through. My point is I could have married someone who likes all the same things I like and agrees with all my positions on all the issues, but then I would never grow as a person. I love Nian MORE because we don't agree on everything.
And so a shout out to Shimona and Frisky and Blasianlotus and KJ and FGL and all my other friends on the web, and to Brian and Mike and Apollo and all my other friends out in the real world and especially a shout out to my wife Nian. I am an agnostic and yet I feel there is some reason the universe has brought you all into my life, some lesson you all have to teach me. And I think this is why we stick by our friends, because if it isn't all just chance (and as an agnostic I have to allow that it is) then your are all in my life for a reason and aren't just interchangeable pieces. And that's really my biggest point of all. If all your friends where the same, then they would be interchangeable pieces, they would all just be Pawns when what you might really need is a Knight or Bishop or a King to get through this game of Chess we call life.
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1 Comments:
Wow, I've missed so much! First of all you and Nian got married. Congratulations! May you two have many happy years together.
Secondly, you had surgery. Not cancer, I read. I'm very happy it wasn't. Sucks though that you went through an unnecessary surgery.
And thirdly, I greatly enjoyed this post (and it's not only because you so kindly mentioned me ^_^ Makes me feel so special even though I'm really not! LOL)
My hubby and I don't agree on everything either but it's the differences that keep the spice in the relationship. As far as making new friends, I don't think there's anything wrong with seeking like-minded people, but I do agree that seeking those you have little in common with will enlighten and broaden yourself and others. Diversity is soooo wonderful!
(Thank you for stopping by my blogs! I posted a reply to your comment on Lotus Earth)
By lotusearth, at December 14, 2005
