Bigboi,
Oh, dear! It was not my intent to mislead you as to my gender. I thought that my comment was obviously in jest, especially in the context of referring to myself as "agent Ginny."
Actually, what happened was that Jan made a mistake in one of his pro-atheist arguments. Alan, chomping his cigar, decided there must be damage control. We all gathered for a conference call and decided that the best strategy was for Jan to distract everyone from the atheist thread by insulting Riz. It seems we used excessive force, so Norm was called in to divert from the damage done by the damage control by distracting everyone with humor. This strategy, too, backfired, and so agent Ginny was called in to smooth things over. . . .
Ginny & teejay:
So are you two gonna bone or what?ONE....
bigboi
Bigboi,Actually, I'm a man. "Ginny" is just my agent persona.
Big Mean Hairy Hoss
Lest I have misled you in other ways, to my knowledge, Alan does not smoke or chomp cigars.
As for Teejay, I understand that you may know him better than I do, and I respect your right to form your own opinion and choose your own friends. I agree that everyone is entitled to an opinion, and I do not think your regard for Teejay makes you a toady or sycophant. I only wish he would make the same allowance for the opinions and friendships of others.
I sympathize with your troubles, Bigboi. Several years ago, I was fired myself for a reason I felt was unjust. I was depressed at the time anyway, and the firing made it worse. I was unemployed for over a year and eventually evicted from my apartment. My son and I stayed for awhile in a homeless shelter. It took awhile, but I did bounce back. I hope you can do the same, Bigboi.
As for Farkel's behavior, I think each of us must choose individually how we react. Understanding why a person behaves as he does is not the same as making excuses for his behavior. My child may be tired and irritable and slap another child. While I love him and understand why he did it, I do not approve of the slap. At the same time, I may realize that tired and irritable as my child is, the time is not right to explain why slapping is wrong or to make him apologize. I would probably apologize myself, remove my child, put him down for a nap, and talk to him when he was in a better frame of mind.
As I see it, the situation with Farkel is similar, with the big difference that Farkel is an adult and only he can give himself a time out. Even as adults, we sometimes behave in childish ways. I have done it myself, especially when I am hurting.
As a JW, I shunned people when their behavior did not conform to certain standards. As an ex-JW, I am slowly learning to accept human failings, especially in myself. I have learned that loving someone means accepting that person in all their humanity--on good days and on bad days. I try to have compassion. (I'm obviously having a difficult time with Teejay.) I hope that others will love me in the same way, even when I am unlovable. That's usually when we need love the most.
This is my choice with Farkel. I do not expect everyone to conform to it. I did want to explain.
Ginny
