Sorry, Anonymous

For the first time in my illustrious blogging career, I have removed a post. The post which I wrote earlier today, entitled "Gym Rats" no longer exists.

The post was a silly commentary about the funny people I have seen at the gym over the last 6 months. I changed small details so that no one could trace my observations to any specific person. It was sarcasm and made to poke fun at a place that is really an ecosystem all its own.

However, my jabs offended someone. I say someone because the offended party refused to make a comment under their own name. She (or he, but not likely) posted as "Anonymous." He/She wrote "Detailed judgement of others coupled with name calling and racial slurs is not being a very good example to those around you."

I have a couple of things to say to my friend Anonymous.

First of all, I am sorry. I am by nature a people watcher. I am fascinated by the dichotomic and sometimes ironic actions of humanity. One of the beauties of writing my blog is that it is just that-- MY blog. It gives me a chance to "call 'em as I see 'em". It lets me be creative and silly and sometimes a little irreverent. However, that doesn't mean that I should be rude. I made up a funny name for someone and I characterized someone as Latino (quite honestly, that was nicer than what I was going to put originally), but apparently that is a "racial slur." For those things, I am sorry. For these errors in judgement, I took the post down.

However, in my "calling 'em as I see 'em" way, may I be so bold as to point out the irony in Anonymous JUDGING me as judgmental?? And may I also point out that at least I have the guts to state my opinions as myself? I own up to my criticism-- can you say the same?

A couple of years ago, I was sent a letter also signed "Anonymous" which rocked my world. It criticized me for trying the very best I could in fulfilling my church responsibilities. While that letter crushed me on a personal level, it did something even worse. By not signing that letter, Anonymous de facto assigned blame to everyone I met. For months, every time I ran into someone in my ward, I had to wonder, was it you?

Eventually, I made peace with the situation and genuinely forgave whoever wrote it. I only bring it up now to make a point. If you have criticism that you feel is a)worth saying and b) genuinely your responsibility to offer, OWN IT. Very few situations meet both of those criteria.

By offering your unclaimed criticism, you assign a little of the blame to everyone. You are like the kid who throws something at the teacher when her back is turned so the whole class gets punished.

Yep, you are THAT kid.

The fact is, there aren't that many people who read my blog. I could spend a few minutes and trace back the origins of Anonymous, but I won't. After I push the publish button for this post, I won't spend one more second thinking about what some self-righteous, pretentious hypocrite had to say. Quite honestly, if I could figure out how to do it, I'd re-publish the post and be proud of it.

If you don't like what I have to say in my blog, DON'T READ IT. It's as simple as that. Maybe I'm not always a great example-- I never said I was. As Charles Barkley once said, "I am not your role model." However, I am honest and I own what I say. If you can't own what you say, you are no longer welcome to comment on my blog.

I can take criticism-- I will even change my ways if it is legitimate. But ONLY if I respect the person that it comes from.

P.S. Anonymous, that's not you.