If You Can't Say Something Nice

I was struggling today trying to come up with something to write about. I had things floating around in my head, but nothing really jumped out at me. It was just a lot of randomness, nothing that I felt I could build a post around. Maya and Abby were both up before the crack of dawn all bright eyed and busy tailed. So Mike and I took turns napping today to make up for the lack of sleep. Robin, Tim and the girls surprised us with dinner and a visit. That's three sentences. I guess I could have forced myself to flesh one of those out into a post, but today's was really a you had to be here to appreciate it kind of day.

After everyone was asleep for the night I settled myself down to read my favourite blogs and hope an idea hit me for my own blog. Karen at The Naked Ovary was my fourth stop of the night. I found Karen's blog a while ago just like I've found all my other favourite blogs, from links on other people's blogs. I love her blog because it's honest and true to herself and sometimes her posts reflect her anger, fear and/or her pain. She's waiting to travel to China to meet her daughter. The daughter she has already named Maya. If you're wondering, yes that's where my Maya got her name. As Mike and I scrambled to find a girl's name we could both agree on I was reading Karen's blog when I decided to add Maya to the list after being moved, again, by how much she loved her daughter already.

So tonight when I couldn't come up with a topic worthy of blogging about Karen came to my rescue again with this post. She makes really great points about blogging and commenting on blogs. How it's easy, thanks to the anonymity of the internet, to be exceptionally cruel in comments left on blogs. You'd think that in this day and age we would have figured out how to get along. What purpose could it possibly serve to be mean and/or hateful to a total stranger. I was taught to respect people feelings, opinions and beliefs even if they differed from my own. To treat people with common courtesy and decency. It costs nothing to be kind and failing that, at the very least, polite. I can't comment on how it must feel to receive nasty comments since my only commenters are my Mom and occasionally Lori (who will be commenting even less due to a blogger embargo at work).

It is a sad fact that one negative remark can be so much more powerful than a thousand positive ones. The world would be a better place if we all took a moment before we spoke to ask ourselves a few of questions; Is this comment needlessly hurtful? Is it hateful? Do I know what I am talking about? Will this comment serve any real purpose? If you answer yes to even one of those questions then maybe it's something you shouldn't be saying.