You Just Think You Know Them

My friend, M.E. experienced a couple of revelations recently that made her wonder what else she didn't know about her friends.

A woman she has known for over 30 years surprised her with some very unkind remarks about President Obama. From what she said, there was little doubt in M.E.'s mind that her long-time friend was a racist. And, even worse, she is a Republican. M.E. began to wonder why she had never realized this about her friend. They have had almost daily contact and bowl on the same league. Yet, whenever M.E. has expressed her liberal viewpoint, and she expresses it loudly and often, her friend had never uttered a word. But, since Obama became president, she has finally found her voice, and has criticized him roundly and called him racist names.

And, on the heels of this revelation, M.E. was talking to another long-time friend, a classmate of hers from her nursing school. M.E. and five or six of her classmates have had annual reunions every year since the world was young, and they were on the phone, planning this year's get together, when her friend suddenly cautioned M.E. not to bring up the subject of politics, because two of their friends were staunch Republicans. M.E. was astonished. How could she have known these women so long and so well without knowing about their political opinions?

The two conversations, coming one right after another almost rendered M.E. speechless. Almost. Nothing short of the grave will ever actually accomplish this. Anyway, now M.E. is wondering what else she might find out about her friends if she ever questioned them.

I have had a couple of similar experiences lately, in my blog reading. It is so easy to think you know people after reading their blogs daily or whenever they post, for a few years. Of course, you realize you don't know them personally, never having laid eyes on them. But, you come to believe you understand their opinions and attitudes in a very basic way. I would think it would be very difficult to pretend you're someone you're not, over a period of years. Lately, I have had reason to think I might be a bit naive.

One of the bloggers I have been reading for years recently started rejecting my comments. She and I had agreed on so many things, throughout the recent presidential campaign and election, that I thought I knew her fairly well. She was very pleased, as was I, when Barack Obama was elected, and yet, scarcely a day has gone by since his inauguration that she hasn't had some complaint or other about the way he was conducting his appointments, etc. Nothing he was doing pleased her. I found it disappointing, and had the temerity to mildly disagree with her opinion. So, she stopped accepting my comments. That's ok. It's her right to accept or reject whatever comments she chooses. It just makes me wonder how we could have been in such complete agreement one day, and suddenly, no agreement at all. Go figure. Anyway, I'll keep on reading and enjoying her blog (except for the occasional rant against Obama), and just keep my comments to myself. It's disappointing, though.

Another blogger I have been reading for many years is someone I have enjoyed for her humor and writing abilities. We don't have a lot in common, generally, but I still enjoy her blog. She was disappointed when Obama was elected, because she supported Hillary, and has had some harsh things to say about him, and that doesn't bother me at all. But, recently, she had a very vitriolic post about Ted Kennedy which I think revealed an unforgiving nature, and made me think I would just delete her from my blog list. It wasn't her opinions that made me want to stop reading, it was seeing a part of her personality that she had never shown as blatantly before. It made me realize that I would not want to know her in "real life".

Have you ever been disappointed by other bloggers that you have read for a long time? I don't mean because they disagreed with you politically or on other subjects, but because they revealed something in their basic nature that you know you wouldn't like if you knew them, and you would never be close friends. This is the only time I have deleted someone from my blogroll for this reason.

Was I too hasty?

Stay tuned.

Disjointed Thoughts

Thanks to Big John, I have a new award to add to my blog roll. If you haven't read his blog, give it a try. He's very interesting, very funny, and very irreverent.

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I haven't paid a lot of attention to updating my blogroll lately, I'm afraid. Since I use Google Reader, I tend to put new blogs on it and forget to also put them on my blogroll. I'll have to do better.

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I miss Annie, of Little Rock Photos. Can't find anyone else who takes pics of my old home town. I sure hope she comes back in the fall.

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Maybe the reason I can't come up with any new posts is because I'm preoccupied with politics at the moment. In fact, it's really driving me crazy (Jay would tell you "That's not a drive, it's a short putt." haha, he's a card.) I simply can't commit to voting for Barack Obama. I THINK I'm going to vote for him, but there's just something............. On the other hand, I'm a good Democrat, by cracky, and I've had to hold my nose and vote more times than I can count, so I imagine I'll cave this time, too.

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Thanks to the economy, I can't justify buying the number of paperbacks I usuall buy, so I've been getting books from our local joke for a library. Since I can't count on getting bestsellers as soon as they come out, I have resorted to reading older mysteries, which means I'm reading books by people whose books I don't usually buy. Lately, I'm slogging through Jeffery Deaver and Steve Martini. Actually, I'm enjoying them.

The local library is pretty much held hostage by the Women's Book Club. This group has been around since just before the earth cooled off, and I suppose they should be given credit for our even having a library. But, they've assisted the Board in a few pretty costly decisions, such as trying to get a bond issue passed because the building needed a new air conditioning system. This ploy worked the first time they asked, but the next time, after they had used all the money for something else, it didn't fly. We may be slow, but we're not stupid.

Then, they had this idea that the way to make extra money was to charge library patrons "rent" for books on the Best Seller lists. In fairness, I don't think ours was the only library trying to pull this little scam. (I'm also sure they didn't view it as a scam, either. But, I'm the suspicious type.) Anyway, they saw the light fairly soon.

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I guess everyone is pulling back a bit these days. And, naturally, since the retailers are beginning to feel the pinch, they, in their infinite wisdom, will decide the way to fight this is to raise prices. Isn't this just the opposite of supply and demand?

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The Enquirer ran a story about John Edwards and his alleged long-time girlfriend and their "love child". This story has been floating around for a while, and I have no idea whether it is true, nor do I care, frankly. After Bill Clinton, it's going to take more than that to create a scandal. Since this story ran, however, Jay has been doing his fist-pumping "I told you so" superior dance. For some reason, he has an unnatural dislike for John Edwards. It's very strange, if you ask me. He doesn't even know the guy, and he has called him a "fake" since day one, when he ran for Veep.

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Did I imagine things, or was the media coverage of the death of Jesse Helms rather tepid? I got the feeling people were trying desperately to find something good to say about the man.

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More later.