Originally Posted by
emmett
One might think it a bit silly for someone to have enjoyed a message board as much as I have enjoyed this one. For me it is still to this day the ONLY one that I am a member of. I mean what real purpose does spending as many hours on here have in relation to life, the world and the day to day?
Well, I'll tell you! As many of you know when I got on here it was while I was trucking back in Sept 04 after having experienced the absolute lowest point of my life. The solitude was overwhelming, my confidence level was streaming downward and I was literally in risk of going over the edge so to speak. In short, I had been sued, as many of you know, had lost a business I had owned, which I built from scratch and had chosen to venture out on the road to find myself and recup from the devastating result of the earlier mentioned catastrophy.
Having always been a passionate person, very interactive and opionated, I'm sure it would be easy to imagine that the confines of an 8 x 8 rolling prison cell wasn't doing much for my self esteem at the time and I really needed a venue by which to interact with folks and begin my long road to recovery. As a basic humorist, which I have sort of been referred to as by friends, I was able to latch on to the debate points on the old board and found a receptive audience who stimulated my mind and felt recieved very well at a time when y'all could not have known how much it meant to me to have that in my life. I discovered the board one evening while sitting around in the truck waiting to unload a load of cars, somewhere out west. Before long, that little message board had become my only daily link to the outside world. Now as you know, I am not a heavy poster, I read every one of them, and reply in spurts, sometimes several a day (rare), however the presence of the topics, talking points and politically favored chit chat hits home with me. Back before my transition (which was almost an overnight thing), I spent a great deal of time, chatting with friends, writing an occasional piece or two in newspapers editorial columns and being active in my local political party's agenda. I missed it and felt it had been snatched from me by fate when I was forced to go on the road and be subject to absolute seclusion in an enviornment that I absolutely depised.
I really didn't read too much into it at first, I mjean hell, it is just a message board, but soon I found myself becoming attached to the folks. How pitiful I must have looked, going to my little message board each day, just to see who had written what. It's like I had no life except to sit in front of a steering wheel 14 to 18 hours a day, watching our beautiful country go by in the window, feeling sorry for myself and allowing depression to grip firmly around the neck of my soul and choke the spirit out of me. Then slowly, came the encouraging words of some of you, you know who you are, I began to allow myself to, and through the words of many of you, and other friends at home, find myself again. The board gave me a vehicle by which to express myself, my family gave me hope and I found strength in realizing some of the opinions I had were more important than I had allowed them to be, back when the daily grind of running a fast paced company had robbed me of my ability to place emphasis on them. Ever present was my knowledge that sometimes the things we think important are not quite as such, and visa versa. Oh... we make no huge difference in the big picture of the world on here, that may be so, however to think back and to know that at one time it was all I had, at a time when things seemed so unimportant. Having said that and in the spirit of the season, I want to thank each and every person who was an influence in that trying time of my life and to tell you that even though I have never met you, I appreciate you.
Our country is comprised of great socialogical diversity. It becomes more the case everyday. For many of us it threatens what we were raised to understand as the epitamy of life in the United States. For others though, and more so the ones who embrace the changes that seemingly represent the threats to old fashioned ways that we most easily embrace, are the hopes and dreams of a better life than what they have experienced. Those of us who feel threatened by these changes will continue to struggle for our share of tradition, while hopefully understanding that change is inevitable, much like we would hear our relatives say when we were young and did not understand what they meant. For those who have found a forum such as this one to continually pound out those issues, will find themselves able to accept change with less difficulty I think just due to exposure, to those who represent dissenting opinions, the culture of those involve and the topics by which are discussed here.
This board is a powerful and wonderful place. The people here are passionate and represent each end of the spectrum by which we witness our politicains, press and people contend with the same issues daily. Hell, you never know, it could be here that some youngster will stop by one day and gain an interest in events that are important. Might seem silly to some, but I got news for ya, this forum may very well have saved my sanity and is the result of someone I have never known or met. To those of you whom I have disagreed with, I respectfully apologize for anything offensive I may have said if it was taken as such. I am sure I have been out of line from time to time. I have so enjoyed the process. While my days of riding in that damned isolated truck are long over and I am at home, fighting through this economic nightmare to rebuild the family business once again, I will always continue to come to this little message board and by doing so will be reminded that it was here that I found my ability to still have something to be passionate about and interact with folks, at a time when doing so made the difference in my life in a way only I can understand.
I feel a kindred attachment to you people on here. Genuinely I do! You are a fine group of people whom through those isolated hours of input you spend, oh..... I know..... you bet I know....... you have influenced, interacted and discovered through this board, who we are, what we love, what America is and magnified the diversity necessary to truely understand our culture and it's people. While our opinions, arguments and info links, measured one at a time may not be worldchanging in their single composition, as a whole they represent the issues of the day, our world, our opinions and our passion, one little entry at a time! From the left and from the right come the words, sometimes factual, sometimes not so and quite inappropriate at times but they represent the same things we see debated in our press, only with a personalized feel to it.
I have met or talked to many of the members of this board. In essence, this is sort of a violation, wouldn't you think? I mean, this is a board, it's meant to stay in it's prospective..... right? WRONG! I would actually like to see a time when all of us could share that moment of realizing the faces behind the opinions and so forth. My experiences have all been positive along this regard. Anyway, my point to all this babbling is that we realize we have great purpose, and we do, we debate, we take the time to talk about the things others ignore and accept. Not that we will make any ground breaking changes to the overall prospective of things but then again..........
I am most thankful for many things in my life and wanted to take a few minutes to pass on to those of you who played a part, however unknowingly in some cases, in my little drama play. Funny.... a message board, LOL...... Hmmm..... a message board......... NO! The people on the message board!!!
God bless each and every one of you this Christmas season in hopes that you and yours are well. I say this to those i have agreed with and to those I have disagreed with. To the ones that I may have found my way on to your dasterdly bastard list, such as Gab, MFM, Joe Steel and sometimes Psycho and whoever else..... God Bless You all especially.... as you represent my conscience in hopes that I may not remain so narrow minded as to think that only I live here and must remember that there is blacktop on both sides of the road!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Message to everyone
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