Folks, I have been gone for about 9 days and I feel like I have come back to
a strange and different world. This list, the Parkinson's chatroom, and the
friends I've made from both are my support group. Most of the time, my only
support when I need it the most. In the nine days I was gone, humor has
evidently been banned from PIE and added to SPARKLE (Yes I did subscribe,
PIGS ((shudder)) and all).
The Parkinson's Chatroom feels like I am trying to see a friend, but have to
pass through a metal detector and strip search to get there, and when I do,
all the commands have changed . And more importantly to me, I see several
different, unrelated posts where friends of mine are being attacked, or
belittled, or made to feel their opinion or comments aren't wanted or
needed. And that makes me very sad to see. I am not as funny as John, or
as eloquent as Dennis, or as good at finding information that helps people
as Janet, or as good at summarizing with humor as Barb etc.. I don't have
to be as good at any of those things, I have those people already doing it
for me. What I do have to do is to be me, and speak the truth as honestly
as I feel it. The sparkle list maybe the saving of the PIE list for many
people, but I hope the owners of that list will consider adding a summary to
the PIE list once a week(?) so those who cant delete all the messages can
still enjoy some of the humor. And from what little I've heard, the new
chatroom is even better than the old one, and there were good reasons to
change, and to add the security, and I am sure with time I will get use to
it, and relearn who all my friends with new names are.
But I hope the attacks on and from friends stop here. Several of these have
been between friends of mine, and between people who I feel sure respect
each other. Some of them may have been meant in a teasing manner, but came
out wrong. And I am sure some were written in anger, and not meant. And of
course, a few meant exactly what they said.
Anyway, I missed you while I was gone,
and missed reading the list, and I hope each of us will realize how
important this list is to so many different people, and again go back to
arguing about content while leaving persons out of the criticisms.
bob "tex99" armentrout
