Thursday, February 21, 2008

Turn the other cheek

So, I think I tend to get more emotional over rude things online than I do in person. if someone insults me to my face, most times it doesn't phase me - I really couldn't care less. But there have been several instances of people writing things online that jab at me or a friend that really got me riled up.

A while back my friend Brian had a roommate with a girlfriend who lived in CO who had never met Brian. She wrote some very derogatory remarks about Brian on her blog...and that upset me. And recently, a self-proclaimed pedant chided me for a typo I wrote in a comment to a friend....and that upset me, too. Both times I wanted to write back with some biting remarks - give the person a dose of her own medicine. I did write back the first time, I did not the second.

I think I need to learn to let these things go as easily as I do in real life. Maybe it is because I feel more articulate with the written word and have more time to stew on it than in real life. But I realized that if I sting back at the person who stings me, I am no better. I don't feel so guilty for stinging back for my friend, I wanted to stick up for him. But I'm trying to discipline myself to turn the other cheek - there is a time to speak and a time to be silent, and I am trying to discern the difference.

1 comment:

Kevin said...

you could respond without retaliating. and ironically, sometimes the most biting comebacks are calm, controlled thoughts that contrast and magnify just how ridiculous the person was to begin with.

i don't know how i found your blog, just googled turn the other cheek, it's 3am what can i say. i wonder if anyone will ever read this.