I'm Outta Here

Sorry to do this to y'all, but it's something I've wanted to do for a while, it just took a day of being snowed in at home to get me motivated...I'VE MOVED TO WORDPRESS!

http://charliedean.wordpress.com/

I'll talk about what motivated me and some of the minor changes over there...

So reset your aggregators (and links for those of you living in the blog world dark ages!)

It's a bitter pill, I swallow here

Dave asked a question that really hit a point of contention with me...something that I've wrestled with for the last several months, had great conversations, but have avoided blogging about because I feared the criticism (I know...I wallow in irony!) Instead of leaving a ridiculously long comment on his blog, I offer a bunch of questions here, for consideration regarding criticism, being critical and the like that I've wrestled with in my own mind.

• If I criticize more than I praise, what does that say about me?
• What does it say about the state of my soul?
• Why is it, that often, not always, but often, the people who are the most critical are the least capable of facing criticism?
• Here's another way of saying it, why are the most-opinionated, the least capable of dealing with criticism.
• Is criticism just "low-hanging fruit"? What I mean is that often, what I see done in the name of criticism, is just an attempt to appear intellectual or superior, but the truth is, most well-reasoned criticism are from people who write books and published articles, where people pay $$ to hear what they think. Usually, they don't write blog posts.
• If I just blast someone or something in a post, how is it beneficial? (I know I've been guilty of this in the past, but I'm wrestling with the idea.) What does it really accomplish?
• Is there a difference between being critical and "constructive engagement," with an idea you may totally disagree with?
• Does how I respond to people who disagree with me say something about the state of my soul? Or is it just a maturity thing? Or is it neither?
• What if they're mean and unfair?
• Rob Bell likes to talk about "binding and loosing." Isn't disagreeing with his book really the semi-ugly process of binding and loosing? I know that Rob is really offended by the ad hominem criticism, as he should be, but the real criticisms, are valid and good, even if you don't ultimately agree.
• If I can't handle criticism -- if it bothers me to the core and I can't let it go -- then maybe I shouldn't post things or write things or speak publicly -- because honestly, once it's out there -- people will respond, like it or not, and frankly, you willingly put it out there.
• I guess the real question I have had to ask myself in the past is, "where does my self-perception and awareness come from?" -- my critics, or my Creator?

I have some answers, at least ones I can live with for most of these...but it would be a much-too-long post (it's already a little too long)!

Yes...the title of this post is from a U2 song -- Van Diemen's Land -- off of Rattle and Hum

Happy Blogiversary!

Oops! I missed it! My 2-year blogiversary was on Friday. (Dec. 15) Anyway...here's a link to my first post.

• I guess all I want to say is "thanks" for reading -- and commenting!
• I'm a little humbled that anyone really cares what I think about anything.
• I'm also a little "miffed" that everytime I post, Blogger loses my formatting and it ends up in one big, run-on paragraph, unless I bullet everything.

That's what I'm thinking!!

I read this on my friend Dave's blog... ...and it's exactly what I think/feel/struggle with often... Oftentimes, when I blog the least, it's because I'm in a period of thinking/wrestling with stuff that I can't talk about here... Hence, the last couple of months... -- a major change for Nexus, that I couldn't really blog about, but was consuming my thoughts -- a job change for me at Northwoods, that I really couldn't talk about, even though it's a pretty big deal -- LifeBridge. I'm much more likely to spill my guts for a cup of coffee (for you Seinfeldians, like me, Caramel Macchiato is the key to my vault, not peach schnapps) than I am for a blog post.

Amen & Amen

I don't know this guy at all, but he hits it right on the head in his call for humility in the blogworld!

Censorship, Opinions

I admire Malcolm Gladwell. His books (The Tipping Point, Blink) are great and his articles in the New Yorker are generally pretty stimulating as well. So about a year ago I started reading his blog. Now of course Malcolm Gladwell has thousands of people reading his blog and therefore there are scores of comments to every post. Recently however, one blogger has been leaving a plethora of comments on his blog -- most of which are critical, ad hominem, mean-spirited and generally rude. So Gladwell, earlier this week, asked the readers of his blog if this person whould be banned from his blogs. Well, this set off a firestorm, and then this guy -- on his blog -- encouraged his readers to inundate Gladwell's site with "votes." So Gladwell then went to his blog to leave a comment and found out that this guy -- who was so offended that he might be "banned" from gladwell.com doesn't even allow comments on his blog. So, what's the point? Well, maybe there's a couple of lessons to learn:

• I wish that people like Gladwell would choose to stay out of the mud once in a while. Whenever you try to defend yourself to people that are unfair and unspirited, you immediately lower yourself to their level. I think that people are smart enough to figure out who's right and who's wrong. You don't always have to defend yourself.
• Why is it that the people with the strongest, loudest opinions are often the people that have the lowest tolerance for criticism, feedback, etc.?
• Proverbs 20:3 "Avoiding a fight is a mark of honor; only fools insist on quarreling" and Proverbs 18:6 "Fools’ words get them into constant quarrels;they are asking for a beating," seem appropriate here. There are some people that just aren't worth quarreling with.

playing around

FINALLY got the new blogger...I'll be playing around a little bit (when I have time), so don't freak out!