Yesterday’s post, “White Hot Flame”, contained a copy of a back-and-forth between a fellow student and myself.  The trouble, however, is that there was a typo.  Where I wrote “Hey S-“, it should’ve simply read, “To Anyone Who Feels Like Reading At The Moment:”

Now, you might be wondering, “What’s the difference?”  Well, I’m exceedingly happy to share the answer, the difference, with you here.  

If I wrote that post to “S-“, who, like you and I, is a real live person struggling to find her way in this crazy, crazy world, it would have been an attack on her character.  It would’ve have been an immature, undignified, and disrespectful personal attack.  And I don’t do that.  At least, I don’t do that to strangers.  For someone to get me to deliberately and proudly sacrifice my character in an effort to attack theirs, well, that requires a special bond.  To be specific, that requires the bond that only family can form.    

But if the post was written “To Anyone Who Feels Like Reading At The Moment”, then it reveals itself for what it really was.  It was a rant.  And I’m allowed a rant.  

See the difference?

So, a stranger wrote something that pissed me off, and I had a lot I wanted to say about it.  Because I write a lot these days–because it was late and I didn’t have anyone to talk with about it–I wrote (typed up) what I had to say, and was quite pleased with how it turned out.  So pleased in fact, that I wanted people to read it.  I wrote something, and I wanted people to read it.  At this point, no error has been committed–no attack.  Posting what I wrote to the class discussion board, with S- as the addressee, is the mistake.  That’s the moment my words transformed from “rant” to “attack”.  I see that now.

Some of you who don’t know me personally might think this is all bullshit.  That I’m backpedaling.  You’d be mistaken.  Just ask the people that do know me.  To a man, they’ll confirm that my one true goal in life is to get you to love me as much as I love me.  They’ll confirm that for a while I nurtured the goal by hoping that my smile would be enough to do the trick.  When that didn’t work, I focused on my body.  When that failed, I tried my voice.  That I write to you now illustrates that while I’m 0-3 in my quest, I am not giving up.  

Did I want S- to read my post?   Yes.  Because at least then I knew I had one reader.  Did I want to attack S-?  No.

So here I am, again writing.  I’m exploring the feeling of remorse.  Some of you might recognize these words as an apology.  I can buy that.  But for me, there is something more going on here.  For me, this was a breakthrough.  For me, this was growth.

Thanks Ma.

And thank You.

The only way to get there is together.