All Heart Maintenance. Part II.

Yesterday, I made a blog entry about the Chris and Karleena Perry "letter incident" in St. Albert, Alberta, and the craziest thing happened:

People read it!

Three hundred or so people visited my blog, if not out and out read it. This was a new experience. I am used to having maybe one or two people read what I write in these pages. Ten readers would have been amazing. Three hundred? To me, that's the equivalent of being in a rock band and filling up a stadium!

But, I realized something as the result of seeing that so many people took a gander at my thoughts on the subject. I look at some of the words that I wrote about the Perry's, in particular, the nonchalant way I talked about boycotting their business, and I see it in a different light. It has a new meaning now. Do I think that by me writing that people will run out and boycott their business? I hope not. I don't think so. I don't think anything I write has that power. I'm not the Pope (thank goodness)!

I disagree with what the Perry's wrote, to say the VERY least. I was critical. Others have been critical. But, do they deserve to lose their business over this? I don't think so. It's unfortunate that they feel the way they do. I spoke out. That should probably be the end of it. I don't wish them ill will. I don't want to be vengeful towards them, and I sure hope that there has been no threats against made by anyone else at all. Yesterday, I feel that I might have got caught up in wanting to be mean to them for coming across so mean in their letter. In other words, I felt vengeful. That isn't right, is it?

I also feel a bit bad about even mentioning their children. I do hope that they will not feel the way their parents seem to. But, I also don't want to see them caught up in this whole deal. That isn't really fair, is it? I hope they aren't being implicated in this at all. I hope it isn't personally affecting them. Even when I say "the Perry's"....is that right? I mean, it is, technically...but, does that imply that I feel the whole family should be criticized? No. Chris and Karleena are the ones who wrote what they wrote, not the kids. So...sorry kids, if I did what I now know I didn't want to do.

There are many reasons that I have felt so passionately about this letter and what was said. I could go on about why, but I won't. But, ever since I read the letter, I have thought and thought...and thought about it. It angered me, it surprised me...shocked me...upset me. That is why I wrote about it yesterday. That is why I write about it now. I may write about it more, who knows. I may do that because it touches on my current situation...the place that I find myself right now in the world. It hit very close to some issues that I have been dealing with, and thinking about, and analyzing, and OVER analyzing in my brain.

Funny world, it is. A letter written in St. Albert, Alberta, in a small newspaper can have such an impact on a guy on the other side of the world. For that, I am glad that the St. Albert Gazette printed that letter, and, I guess, glad that the Perry's wrote that letter. What an odd turn of events, no?