April 19
I wrote the other day about how difficult it is to be the cause of pain to a friend. Because it's never a one-way pain. You get caught in it yourself. And I'm feeling that shared pain very acutely today.
I find myself in the very awkward position of being loved by someone who is also in love with a third party. Sounds like the polyamorous lifestyle that I espouse? Not quite. For that third party does not understand or accept that lifestyle.
I can't help but feel that this fact should make certain realizations crystal clear. But then, I'm not the one now being faced with an awesomely difficult choice to make. And I know from past experience how easy it is to be blinded by love. Plain things that others see just seem to elude you. Or look totally differently.
My thoughts are with her, now. Constantly. I feel her pain, her confusion. And her love.
And I know she feels mine.
Many of you are familiar with the somewhat nasty situation regarding membership in the Archipelago webring. After much thought and observation, I have relinquished my membership in the ring.The final straw was an email sent to ring members that was evidently meant to be ironic, poking fun at the situation. I felt, however, that it missed the humor mark by a country mile. Instead, the message seemed to make light of a situation that I consider to be quite serious.
I'd been concerned about such a situation cropping up when I first heard about the parameters for acceptance into the ring. It sounded more like an award than a ring to me. In fact, it sounded like my own award that I give to the sites that I feel provide the highest quality journals. I give this award only to the journals that I personally read frequently. Hence, it is a very slowly growing list of recipients.
The webring, like all others, is one where people "join." Except in this case, the webmistress reviews the content and design of the journal and either deems it worthy or unworthy. A very daunting task, indeed.
But as I said, this seems to be more like winning an award rather than joining a ring. It is, in fact, a subset of another webring, Open Pages. This does seem to make it an elitist type of thing, despite the denials of the group.
Frankly, I don't wish to be part of such a ring. I'd waited a while to see what was likely to happen. I'd hoped to see some serious attitude changes, and perhaps these will occur in time. But for me, enough.
You know how many bottled beverages have little things on the backs of their labels? Prizes to win, and so on. Peel off label, win a prize. Well, the folks at Fruitopia have gone and actually given us consumers a perforated label to facilitate said peeling of said label.Bloody considerate of them, Cardigan thinks.
Tomorrow's entry...
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