Guess what-i'm tired

Fair warning:  This is likely to make you mad.  If I offend you with this, I'm sorry!  I guess I've been offended enough times lately that I was driven to write this.

I love each of you. Family, friends, coworkers, church members.  I keep in contact with you because I want to know what is happening in your world.  I am interested in you.

I want to hear about your kids being in sports.  I want to see videos of their marching band performance or a hockey, soccer, or football goal.  Tell me why you enjoyed your vacation, punctuated with interesting pictures of that trip.  Post pictures of the wedding or family gathering.  Let me know about your holiday plans.  Keep me informed about those important things going on in your life that I may not know about because you happen to be in another part of the country.  Let me in on the GOOD stuff!  In short, I want to know how YOU are doing.

That being said, here's what I am really NOT interested in hearing about.  ...Why the world is ganging up against you.  ...How ticked off you are that your candidate lost.  ...Squabbles within your family or your workplace, and why I should take your side of the issue.  ...Those cute cat videos you found.  (yeah, I can search for them, too, if I ever possibly wanted them)  All of these, I'm sure, have their place, but I don't need to know about every one of them, thank you very much.  I only mention these because I've see ALL of them.

I acknowledge, as you probably will also,  that there are at least two, and often multiple, positions on any given issue, whether that issue is religious, financial, family, or political.  I will happily grant each of you the freedom to hold your opinion on anything. That is the freedom of thought and speech granted to us by our constitution.  Please have the courtesy of granting that I may hold an opinion, whether or not it is the same as yours.

However, vitriolic posts stating any opinion (of which I have seen many recently) are really disturbing to me.  Many of those are framed and stated in such a way that I am embarrassed to even have them in my email or in my Facebook feed. Several of them use atrocious language or reference sites that use foul language or espouse extreme positions, whose sole purpose is to either put down or raise the ire of those who don't hold that opinion!  Even if I might hold such a position, my Christian upbringing certainly would not allow me to state it in such a way as to lower myself to this so-called "sailor-speech." (No offense intended to my Navy friends!)   Everyone should keep it clean.  We still have polite, moral standards, even though they are swiftly going by the wayside in our society.

I'll tell you what.  I will try not to post any inflammatory opinions on my position, (I guess this post may have to be considered an exception to that...) and I ask that you just consider doing the same.   You know what they are, and you know it when you post them!  None of those extreme posts will likely change my stand on any of those issues, so, unless posting them is somehow therapeutic for you, I don't really need them.   In fact, many are so far-fetched that they are more likely to strengthen my views on whatever the issue is!

I won't drop any of you from my email list or Facebook friends list over this.  If this is too extreme, and you choose to drop me, I guess that's your choice.

Remember, I love you...