Somehow I need to issue a caveat.
The idea of having a forum attached to this site, and in fact to permit discussions via the “comments” section, is rather novel to me. It’s a feature of the way websites have evolved in the last few years and I’m game to see where it goes.
I’ve never had a website in which either played a role and I’m feeling my way along. In the past, websites were collections of writings, separate from comments and from discussion areas.
I remain a writer. I have no desire to become an administrator and less than no desire to become a kind of father figure, psychiatrist, or transference screen.
If having a forum, or for that matter discussion via the comments section seems to be veering in that direction, it may not be such a good idea after all.
A disagreement between readers arose in the comments section when one reader took another to task for his point of view. I must say I’m stumped as to how to orient towards the situation and feel a little perplexed at the role I appear to have been invited to play, which seemed to be as a kind of referee and transference screen. I have to say that I’ve never really envisioned this kind of situation arising and I’ll probably mull it over for the next day or two.
I’ll probably ask people not to use the comments section to discuss other people’s shares but just to hear them and allow them their say.
But the wider question is, what if disagreements break out in the forum? Do I want my ability to write to be affected because I need to attend to conflict?
And the answer is no, I really don’t. I want to write.
I have no ambition to be a guru, father figure, or fount of wisdom. I simply love to write and consider that writing is what I came here to do.
A one-up/one-down way of positioning ourselves is a feature of duality and isn’t a feature of unity. In my view, there’s no room for setting up substitute father and mother figures where we’re going. There’s only room for adults and I orient to everyone here as if everyone wants to be treated as an adult. (I mean “adult” as Eric Berne meant it in Transactional Analysis when he spoke of Parent, Adult, and Child ego states.)
So please know that, if the existence of a forum results in requests of me to serve in these capacities or results in my being invited to act as an authority figure, I’ll regard the experiment as not something I can afford to continue. It is an experiment and it does need to forward the action and lead to healthy outcomes. It needs to not create new dependencies or supersede the writing that is my work.
And, no, never having done this before, I can’t foresee what may develop. The situation is new to me.
I just need to say that starting out.