Monday, October 19, 2009

I could not be a political commentator...

...because my ego is too fragile.
I've been noticing lots of lawn signs for different local offices recently. Seeing a particular name burned me up because of an experience this summer. I decided to use a local website to vent my frustrations, share my experiences, and lend a warning to others. Here's a link to my post. Be sure to read the comments as well. http://rockvillecentral.com/2009/10/contributor-opinion-by-wendy-kiang-spray-the-connection-between-my-water-bill-and-hoffmann-lawn-signs.html/#commenting


Lots of lessons to be learned. First and foremost, I do not have the moxie to be a political commentator. I feel an overall sense of unease about the comments that were posted today. Perhaps I am being overly sensitive. Second lesson, there are lots of wacko losers in this world. There are people who would probably never say to my face sarcastically, "Awwww, poor Wendy", yet in a forum, would have the confidence to be so outright rude. Third lesson, I love my fellow garden bloggers. Here's why:



  • An overall optimism and positivity. The old gardening cliche, "there's always next year".

  • The cheering on of each other. Messages from bloggers who only hope your garden will succeed. That look for the beauty in your garden, and offer sympathy when your seedlings die.

  • An appreciation for differing opinions. I don't always care for all the plants on your blogs, just as I'm sure you don't always care for all the plants on my blog. HOWEVER, I love that YOU love them. I love that even if you don't necessarily care for all of my plants, you still ask questions about them.

  • Are we peaceful or what? We don't argue about whether it's best to mulch with shredded hardwood or pine nuggets or rock. We don't offer links about research that refute what others are doing in the garden.

  • We GET it. We just get each other. We get the passion, the quest to find the most gorgeous daylily, or to grow the straightest carrot, the appreciation for a stunning macro photo. When someone posts a message about a new garden bed, we don't start tearing down about the location, or method, or material, we marvel at and find inspiration in the industriousness.

Lots learned today. Most importantly, I am not a political commentator, but a garden blogger. I like to write about discoveries I make when things are quiet and slowed down. I like to write about recipes I've tried using vegetables I've grown. I like to comment on my love of mother nature (and my disdain for bugs!). And I like you all. You make me feel good.


This bud's for you...


Posted by Wendy at 6:12 PM
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9 comments:

  1. Thanks for loving us! I am glad they gave you that discount :-D

    Making a stand to vote or not to vote for a candidate is always a sensitive statement :-) But really, they should have a better method in alarming the resident. 2.5k is no joke!
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  2. Great post! You are right.(see I am doing just what you said we do.) The optimism in gardeners is refreshing. The truth is there is not only one way to do things and we can all learn from each other. And Gardeners are smarter.
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  3. I fear the faceless internet in some cases causes a break down in civility. Polotics by nature are divisive and boring but I understood what you were trying to say.

    I love your blog though so keep up the good work!
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  4. Love, love love this post. A food and restaurant blog that I read regularly incites so much vitriol and nastiness over a subject one would expect to be as benign as gardening. I may have to link them to this post to show them that there is "another way". Well said, Wendy!
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  5. Wendy, We have a local website down here where in folks air issues and rare is it that anything positive comes as a response.
    Yep, gardeners and Garden bloggers do seem to be cut from a different cloth(burlap maybe?). I'm glad you are one of them, keep up the thoughtful posts.
    Scott
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  6. So true, Wendy! Garden bloggers are a good lot!

    Yep...that's why some of my previous posts have ended with:

    You get it....I know you do!

    Lynn ;)
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  7. Stephanie, you're so right that politics can get very tricky - and this is one of about a million lessons I've learned in the past couple of days. I just generally respect people's opinions, and too often naively assume others will do the same. Don't get me wrong, when someone tells me they support someone I do not,sometimes my opinions of them change somewhat, but there are certain things you can argue and certain things you can't. Like you can't argue what happened to me with the broken water pipe. What's to argue?! You can't argue when I express my personal opinion of something, you know? If I say my favorite color is green, you can say your favorite color is pink, but it's not really reasonable bash on ME and bash on GREEN because you like pink.

    Teresa and Lynn - yes, you're right on!! :)


    Anonymous - you're totally right about the Internet. There are those still in the catagory of "normal" who feel they can lash out a little more than usual behind the screen, then there are those in the catagory of "loser". Beat up as a kid, teased, bitter as an adult, who just patrol the forums and stand guard as trolls. Another lesson learned is to consider the audience when I post on new forums.

    Ricki- don't know why certain populations are so up in arms. To fight about food? gosh!! That burns me up but I can so picture it! Don't know if it's the board or just a concidental mix of people, or the subject matter. There's a great gardening board I use a lot and people are sooooo supportive - until the topic of soil science comes up. It's so funny! I've looked into it a bit and like I said above, if I had known that one particular commentor on my post above were the troll that he obviously is, I may not have gotten so personally ticked off and disturbed by the comment. Upon further research, it also seems like my post was the way a typical post goes. Someone posts, then commentors swoop in, arguing back and forth until the piece dies. I might have reconsidered my post had I done research first. I would have felt frustrated that I could not have posted my thoughts though. Perhaps I would have posted my thoughts and been able to take it more with a grain of salt. But seriously, why would one post a message only to be thrown out to the dogs? This requires some further reflections on my part.

    Scott, that's unfortunate. i was pretty excited about a local forum to discuss issues. I have not perused long enough to determine if positive outcomes are produced. I think they're definitely produced by the owners of the site. As long as you don't click on comments, our city and this site are spectacular - beautiful, lots of resources, events, concerns, celebrations. But as far as the interaction and discussion in my post and a couple others I read, not much positive going down that I see either. A post that beging positively and thoughtfully (ok, I'm NOT just talking about mine here!) quickly goes downhill.

    Thanks for reading and allowing me to do a little therapy here! I think I'd still be stewing over this had I not posted my message on this blog and put things into perspective.
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  8. Wendy, I too will be sore over the huge bill charge under such a situation. The comments didn't help either. I hope you feel much better now. We the garden bloggers are here to cheer you up.
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  9. Goodness, Wendy, I wanted to post a retort to those rude people. What is their problem, anyway? Grrrrr...

    We take up for each other. I have never met a garden blogger that I disliked. That is as it should be.
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My awesome gardening friends...thanks for leaving a comment! I don't typically repond here, but I love knowing who you are so I can visit your blog as well.

btw - if you're trying to show me nude Miley Cyrus photos, sell me nikes or viagra or antibiotics, or encourage my lovely garden readers to visit your site on solar panel construction, or seo-whatevers, sorry, but I'm not publishing your comment. If you want to moderate my blog - well, I can't keep you too busy, and the pay would be horrible. And lastly, no. I'm not interested in Club Penguin cheat codes. Thanks anyway.

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