<snip> "When I encounter someone on the Internet who combines an over-weaning sense of their own self importance with an almost pathological need to use as many words as humanly possible to convince others of that importance, all while coming up with a near-absolute dearth of creative ideas (or even original ideas), I tend to react to them the way Dogbert does in the cartoon I posted recently, by waving my paw at them and saying "Bah."
Whew...lotta words in this there sentence :) ________________________________ From: turquoiseb <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 1:06 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Conversation between Curtis & Robin --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" <curtisdeltablues@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine <salsunshine@> wrote: > > > > On Oct 18, 2011, at 4:37 PM, Rick Archer wrote: > > > > > Robin is having trouble posting this, so I'm doing it for him: > > > > Maybe his email program is bored out of its > > mind by his mind-numbingly > > long-winded posts, and has decided to rebel. > > Hey Sal, > > I have to take part of the credit or blame for the length > since I produced my half of it. And I can certainly see > how from the outside this beast is just too much to bear! > Seriously. But I defend the charge that Robin is just > sending out monologues to strangers here. > > This is one of the most interesting discussions I have > engaged in here. And unfortunately it took a lot of words > to suss out some key points of interest to both Robin and > me. The driving force behind this exchange is a genuine > interest in understanding each other's process for > approaching reality. Because it engages our complete > philosophies, it requires a lot of words. What we are > attempting is not simple. And of course any conversation > with me is going to be lengthened by whatever improv comedy > strikes me as I write, so there we tack on even more. > > I am not making a case that this should be of interest to > anyone else. I am just owning my part in it. I, too, thank Curtis for his explanation. I do not share his fascination with either the people he gets into long-winded discussions with, or with any of their ideas, but it's probably good that someone does. As much as I love Curtis, sometimes I see him as the Patron Saint Of The Terminally Self Important. As such, he is pretty much the polar opposite of myself. When I encounter someone on the Internet who combines an over- weaning sense of their own self importance with an almost pathological need to use as many words as humanly possible to convince others of that importance, all while coming up with a near-absolute dearth of creative ideas (or even original ideas), I tend to react to them the way Dogbert does in the cartoon I posted recently, by waving my paw at them and saying "Bah." Curtis *engages* them. Like the saint he is, he reacts to the nothing they say by either pretending it's some- thing or (more likely) as if he's actually able to find something interesting in it. As such, he has become in a way the "therapist to the stars," or at least those who are legends in their own minds and convinced that they *are* stars. Whereas few others consider Robin or Judy or Ravi or Jim interesting enough to even *read*, Curtis not only reads their stuff but replies to it as if it actually deserved a reply. He meets nitpick with nitpick, self- obsession with "I can understand why you're obsessed with that," tirade with humor. I admire his compassion and his patience in doing this; it is a skill that I lack. Since I honestly don't think that I've ever seen an original or creative idea emanate from ANY of the people I mentioned, it is very difficult for me to pretend that I have. It's much easier -- and a far better use of my time -- to wave my paw at them and say "Bah" than it is to get into their obsessions with them. Curtis feels otherwise, and thus provides these oh-so-needy people with the attention that they so desperately seek. It's like he's the Mother Teresa of the Internet. Whereas some encounter a leper trying to show off his sores and turn away, Curtis says, "Wow...that's really a good one. Just LOOK at the pus oozing from that one," and allows them to feel good about themselves, as if there were at least one person out there in cyberspace who feels that they're interesting enough to deal with. It is thus IMO a form of selfless service, and I commend him for it. I may not read it, even though I know that this may deprive me of glimpses of his awesome humor, but I think it's neat that he does it. > > The average post here is > > maybe 5-10 Kbs, this one alone is 125. While > > this might be his longest to date, it's hardly > > an aberration. I don't get it. Too bad > > MDG is no longer here to explain how and why > > someone would take the trouble, day after day, > > to write these endless monologues to a bunch of almost > > complete strangers. > > > > Sal > > >
