Firstly, let?s just say that I?m surprised by the volume!
?and now for some quick clarifications, in no particular order.
I don?t have thin skin.
I?m not crying in my beer. (That would be sacrilegious!)
I have a great sense of humor.
My initial post was, what I thought, pretty straightforward? are there any other vegans out there? I figured that with a membership list of 50k perhaps I wasn?t alone. So here?s a point about humor I?d like to make. Sexual harassment and humor have something in common? what matters is ?in the eye of the beholder?. If a comedian tells his funniest joke, I mean this is one that busts him up just thinking about it? and nobody in the audience laughs, is the joke funny? So here?s an extreme example. Let?s say that I posted that I was Jewish, and I was wondering if there were any other Jews on the forum. One of the responses is from someone who tells his best Holocaust joke! ?and then justifies it by saying ?oh well, that?s just me, I have a warped sense of humor?. Wouldn?t an average person be completely mortified, or at least feel as though the poster was being inappropriate? We are not islands, we live in a society with all types of others around us, most of us realize and agree that it?s an acceptable trade-off, the etiquette vs. rights thing. (Now that?s not to say that anyone doesn?t have the right to post whatever they choose.) But just because your bosses husband is extremely overweight you don?t really need to exercise your right by calling him ?fat? to his face, do you?
When I made the comment about ?pushing off? it was because ?at that point in time? it did not appear as though the discussion was going to head in a direction that I found interesting. It was no different than if I posted a topic about making hand carved wooden trivets and many who responded sold the virtues of making cast iron trivets. No judgment being made about cast iron trivets or about those who make them? just simply not interested.
Although I am a fulltimer, I am not retired, so I still suffer from the condition known as ?work?! About eight months of the year I work 8-12 hour days, then come the end of December ? early weeks of January I?m sequestered in my office to do all of the bookkeeping, filing, and tax prep that there is no time for during the work season. Once the tax forms are signed I?m off to warmer climes, so there is plenty of impetus to buckle down and get it done. It?s been a few days since I?ve had a chance to turn on my personal computer, and relax. It?s Sunday afternoon about 4pm EST. I see that the discussion has taken a few twists and I am glad to see some have found value in it. Guess my original question still remains, ARE there any other vegans out there?