A doctor has finally cleared me for take off.
Maria is here in my hospital room helping me to get ready. It was a remarkable four days.
We’ll be home in a few hours.
At night, Paul Simon sang to me, we had our own spiritual experience from his beautiful and deeply spiritual new album “Seven Psalms.”
Here is one of his wonderful movements:
“The Lord is a puff of smoke,
that disappears when the wind blows,
the Lord is my personal joke, my reflection in the window.”
Thanks for coming along. Later.
hope you are home and doing well, Jon. My heartfelt wishes for speedy recovery!
susan M
What do you mean Jon, that the Lord is your personal joke?
Ask Paul Simon, Sally, it’s not your business what I believe unless I decide to tell you.
Some day you will call out for him…….
I Don’t need your interference to do that
Why are you so rude to your readers? I mean, damn.
Why is it your business, Gretchen? I don’t recall working for you. I don’t feel as if I owe you explanations for anything I do. If you can give me an honest answer or a good reason, I’ll give you one in return. Sally and I communicate often, and she can speak for herself; she doesn’t need a mummy, and I didn’t ask you for your opinion. Double damn, and have a good day.
Oh, and one more thing. I’m a grumpy old man who just got out of the hospital and am truly weary of people trying to tell me what to do, write, and say. I have no desire to be nice to them, although I wish I were the kind of person who could be, perhaps, like the Dalai Lama. So far, no good. If your mother had taught you well, she would have told you that sticking your nose uninvited into other people’s business was what was rude. I guess you didn’t get that lesson. We have very different ideas about etiquette.
Personally, I find proselytizing rude.
Me too lynda, but it seems to be very popular online..
I’m asking because I’m one of your readers and have been a donor. But I’m concerned about recommending the blog and the programs you raise funds for, because you seem unable to let the typical internet trolls slide. Your nasty bite-back lowers you to their level. I find it uncomfortable, and it has caused me, and a few others I know, to hold back support of you.
Gretchen, thanks for responding to me; I appreciate it. I would respond to you in this way:
If you feel I am nasty and rude and make you uncomfortable, and if you find that a good reason not to support my work with the refugees and the Mansion, you are quite correct not to recommend me to your friends; they may be too fragile for a loudmouth like me. I reserve the right to respond to trolls or critics however I wish. I am sorry if it doesn’t work for you. Mostly, I delete them. And I let my friends make their own decisions.
You are not the only person who feels this way if that helps. Fortunately, many good people from all over the country do not share your assessment of me, and we are able to do our good work more and more every week. I can’t accept your nasty description of me in the name of halting nastiness. I don’t believe anyone who knows me would describe me in that way. I reject your cruel labeling. You dont know me at all and, frankly, have no right to presume to know what I am like. I don’t know how to say this any more softly but it is not your right or business to tell me how to respond to people on my blog posts. I know you think this is your right; we disagree.
What I do is write for myself as honestly and authentically as I can. As I have often said, sometimes you get the good Katz, and sometimes you get the bad one. The blog is the story of a life, not an NPR chat. I am all too human; I am not delicate in my beliefs. It’s a shame to punish refugee children for my writing. But calling me names doesn’t move me. You are being honest, just like me, and you obviously think me a danger to your friends, and I thank you for your candor. I do not in any way see you as too delicate to support the work, but then, I don’t know you anymore than you know me.
I’m confused by your message. You say I should ignore trolls, yet you can’t seem to ignore the blog posts and exchanges, the least piece of my work. Why can’t you do it? No one is forcing you to read them.
Good luck with your decision, and thanks again for responding honestly and with civility (mostly). It sounds like you might find another website more to your liking. This one is free. I work very hard on it every day. We have done tremendous good, and I am proud of that. You don’t get the right to tell me what to do, not for any amount of money. People donate to support the work; they aren’t buying me. The Army of Good is not about liking, pleasing me, or telling me how to kiss people’s asses. I give thanks for these good people and their support of me every day. They have helped so many good people in need. I don’t advertise or recruit people; they come of their own will. So far, no one has been killed or injured for reading blog comments of the blog itself.
I will always support the elderly and refugee children and speak my mind, no matter what the consequences. Best to you.
I don’t mean to tell you what to do, or to intrude. It’s that your brusque clap-back replies to people you perceive as rude or intrusive are unsettling. I’ve seen this happening, as have you, since I began writing internet content professionally in 1999. I’ve been reading your blog since 2007, and I appreciate you. I don’t know, perhaps I’ve grown fragile to so much snark on the Web. Your blog is, for me, a place of creativity and gentle warmth, I guess I’m seeking refuge from other, less spiritual Web sites, but really have no business asking of you.
Gretchen, thank you for this message; it makes me happier than you might know. We are talking to one another instead of AT one another, and you make great sense and are impressed with your honesty and thoughtfulness. I hear you and will consider what you have to say more than once. You said it very well.
I expect I’m not making clear my reasons for taking on trolls and jerks online. I love disagreements, and they are healthy and essential. Cruelty is not healthy, but it is crucial. It should be challenged fiercely. I don’t do it often but sometimes need to do it. We are not entitled to mind other people’s business just because we can.
Blog scrapping is the least important thing I do, and I’m sorry some people don’t see it that way. It is a critical issue, as I’ve written a thousand times.
For me, a lifelong author and journalist, it is also, believe it or not, a boundary and a free speech issue. Corporations have unleashed a wave of hostility online by claiming to care what we think and want to hear. This is a lie. They are only kidding. This so-called freedom to be rude, cruel, and intrusive has become an epidemic because it is rarely challenged. Same with privacy and unwanted intrusions and prejudices.
I believe online trolling in its many forms is eroding free speech and causing countless people to give up their freedom and hide their creativity because they don’t wish to be attacked in the way I am almost daily (so many others catch it worse). These people are eroding free and secure speech. Death threats are just another way to say hello.
Think of all the voices we don’t see or hear. I feel morally obliged to challenge these people at times. There are also boundary and privacy issues at stake. I don’t care to have my every word and deed challenged by the billions of people who can read my work.
I understand why you are looking for a “spiritual” website with no “snark,” as you put it. I believe the Bedlam Farm Journal is a profoundly spiritual website; I write about spirituality and my search for it. If you want perfect, you are correct in looking elsewhere. Spiritual is a long, complex road; I don’t have a magic wand.
I have no apologies to make for my blog or my writing. It is as honest (and spiritual) as I can be for now. I also believe in being honest and human, and I work very hard to do good, so I will take your thoughtful message as a challenge to do more thinking about how I deal with the rampant hostility that is increasingly turning the Internet into a cesspool.
Meaning conversations like this are valuable; this is how it should be done. I’m all too human, Gretchen; I can’t help it. I won’t give it up for money or to make other people happy. You have to take it or leave it. Thanks for turning this into a real conversation, Gretchen.
Thank you, Jon. I think I’ll stick around.
Thank you, Gretchen, you’ve give me a whole new subtitle to post on the Farm Journal, Creativity And Warmth …a goal to keep I will keep you in mind and thanks for the jog and your honesty and eloquence..