Alternative

Since the "password protected" route didn't function quite as I thought it would, I suppose I'm going to go back to the "add readers" method that I tried once before. While I'm not keen on limiting readers, I see no other option at this point.

At this point

With blogging comes attention, both good and bad. If we happen to be in the public eye, say, from other things we do in life besides just surf the internet..e.g...artist, musician, actor, etc., we often times receive praise and attention in addition to what we do as bloggers, sometimes even in light of it.

While the people in this sort of situation can enjoy the praise and attention from legitimate, well-meaning fans, there are very rare instances when things go beyond a fan just being a little over zealous. Being enthusiastic about one's favorite writer, musician, athlete, actor, etc., is natural, and that is one thing. Exhibiting clingy, tenacious behavior and/or public ambivalence toward that person is quite another thing.

If we factor into all of this that people's most deeply-held, core beliefs are at stake, sometimes even people's careers, it's easy to see how people's livelihoods are hanging in the balance, and subsequently, we see how people might become indignant and/or put-off when/if they encounter people who are skeptical of what they hold to be true. As bloggers, we know that this is the case when we discuss religion and spirituality. But as bloggers, we also know that if we venture out from our own blogs onto someone else's blog, we are responsible for what we may find, whether it changes us, or not. IOW, "risk" comes with the turf when we bounce around the WWW checking out different perspectives.

 In conjunction with being a bass player/writer, I consider myself a "reporter", of sorts. I report what I believe to most accurately align with reality, just as other people do. After many years of doing so, I am of the position that there just isn't a nice way to report to someone that they are wrong about their core-beliefs. I know that people will disagree with this and tell me things like, "You can attract more flies with honey!", etc. While that may very well be true, the person telling me this is simply doing what I'm doing, but they're being clever about it. That's it. The potential result is that the foundation of the person with whom we are conversing could very well crumble, albeit, no one can induce a "light-bulb moment" in someone; something must take place from within.

In any case, if we can agree that it's perfectly acceptable for someone's spiritual foundation to crumble into the sea as a direct result of our discussing things with our blog guests, then that, I contend, is the common denominator in all of this, in which case, the means by which it happens is immaterial.

If you'd like to remain reader of BL, please submit your email addy, along with your blog(or where I'd know you from), here:

ice_dawg514@hotmail.com

Thx.

[EDIT] Update: For the time being I've altered my blog viewer settings back to public. Using the "add readers" email method is too limiting, and really, I shouldn't let one incident silence my voice. I recall the day where I could have used the very perspectives I share today.