A Word to the Wise is Sufficient!
This is what Grandma MLBurke always said....
This is a note I've been contemplating, hoping I didn't have to send...but it's probably very good to clear the air!
I have provided this site to the community of people with cystic fibrosis, their families and friends for 10 years. We also invite relevant sponsors to message and blog with us.
Some interesting stats for the site:
There are over 2500 voluntary members.
We have close to 2000 visitors every day with sometimes more than 20,000 page views.
Of the 2000 visitors, half are returnees, half are new visitors.
People stay on the site on the average of over one hour.
Close to 11,000 other sites link to us.
Our site is global reaching to Europe, Asia and Australia.
Many of our visitors are very appreciative for the ability to remain anonymous while asking questions to an experienced community.
There are different categories on the message boards, to help with the organization of the more than 80,000 messages we are now storing. Sometimes, people come in and post in a category when they really should have posted in another category of the forums...usually this happens in the ADULT section because this is our busiest section.
People come and post something that really should be in the OFF TOPIC section, but most people don't read that section. Sometimes, we move the topic to the "correct section", sometimes we leave it depending on how busy we are and the site is and how "off base" the topic is.
For the most part, people are very kind to each other taking into account the nature of the disease, the stress involved in even asking a question let alone dealing with the answer, the complexity of all the treatments, and the confusion that may occur if someone is new here and doesn't know all the discussions that have gone on before.
However, sometimes it is surprising how mean people can be to one another, policing the topics and putting off other people's answers. Deciding who should be banned or excluded from the site. I am fascinated by people who think in terms of "us" and "them". No doubt this is routed in our tribal ancestors.
Sometimes these threads get "carried away", sometimes locked, sometimes deleted but always with the same goal...to allow people in to a hospitable place where they can ask questions and receive answers for a life-threatening disease.
Hospitality is what I extend to everyone who comes here. I know this charism is shared and extended by all of you most of the time.
If Bill or I see that a thread is serving no use to the wider community who visits here every day...then we mercifully lock or delete it...thinking of the greater community!
I know there are a variety of cultures, states and countries represented at this site. For anyone who has traveled around the US, to Europe and beyond, perhaps even to Australia, you can only imagine the differences that just a simple greeting makes or lack of it!
Using a message board, or email requires even more kindness, we don't know your humor, we can't see your expressions, we don't know that this is the culture of your family, your town, your church, your state, your country....doesn't everyone know this?
Sometimes, the adult message board leads me to believe "maybe not".
Here are some thoughts on kindness, I've watched you live over the 10 years I've run this site!
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
Aesop (620 BC - 560 BC), The Lion and the Mouse
The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
There are no thanks for a kindness, which has been delayed.
Anonymous
Compassion is the basis of all morality.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)
There is no duty more obligatory than the repayment of kindness.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)
Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC),
The Confucian Analects I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
Ettiene De Grellet
Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.
George Sand (1804 - 1876)
Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever.
Margaret Cho, weblog, 03-11-04
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
Tennessee Williams (1911 - 1983), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
The Dalai Lama (1935 - )
Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Macbeth", Act 1 scene 5
That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.
William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)
In Gratitude!
Jeanne
This is what Grandma MLBurke always said....
This is a note I've been contemplating, hoping I didn't have to send...but it's probably very good to clear the air!
I have provided this site to the community of people with cystic fibrosis, their families and friends for 10 years. We also invite relevant sponsors to message and blog with us.
Some interesting stats for the site:
There are over 2500 voluntary members.
We have close to 2000 visitors every day with sometimes more than 20,000 page views.
Of the 2000 visitors, half are returnees, half are new visitors.
People stay on the site on the average of over one hour.
Close to 11,000 other sites link to us.
Our site is global reaching to Europe, Asia and Australia.
Many of our visitors are very appreciative for the ability to remain anonymous while asking questions to an experienced community.
There are different categories on the message boards, to help with the organization of the more than 80,000 messages we are now storing. Sometimes, people come in and post in a category when they really should have posted in another category of the forums...usually this happens in the ADULT section because this is our busiest section.
People come and post something that really should be in the OFF TOPIC section, but most people don't read that section. Sometimes, we move the topic to the "correct section", sometimes we leave it depending on how busy we are and the site is and how "off base" the topic is.
For the most part, people are very kind to each other taking into account the nature of the disease, the stress involved in even asking a question let alone dealing with the answer, the complexity of all the treatments, and the confusion that may occur if someone is new here and doesn't know all the discussions that have gone on before.
However, sometimes it is surprising how mean people can be to one another, policing the topics and putting off other people's answers. Deciding who should be banned or excluded from the site. I am fascinated by people who think in terms of "us" and "them". No doubt this is routed in our tribal ancestors.
Sometimes these threads get "carried away", sometimes locked, sometimes deleted but always with the same goal...to allow people in to a hospitable place where they can ask questions and receive answers for a life-threatening disease.
Hospitality is what I extend to everyone who comes here. I know this charism is shared and extended by all of you most of the time.
If Bill or I see that a thread is serving no use to the wider community who visits here every day...then we mercifully lock or delete it...thinking of the greater community!
I know there are a variety of cultures, states and countries represented at this site. For anyone who has traveled around the US, to Europe and beyond, perhaps even to Australia, you can only imagine the differences that just a simple greeting makes or lack of it!
Using a message board, or email requires even more kindness, we don't know your humor, we can't see your expressions, we don't know that this is the culture of your family, your town, your church, your state, your country....doesn't everyone know this?
Sometimes, the adult message board leads me to believe "maybe not".
Here are some thoughts on kindness, I've watched you live over the 10 years I've run this site!
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
Aesop (620 BC - 560 BC), The Lion and the Mouse
The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
There are no thanks for a kindness, which has been delayed.
Anonymous
Compassion is the basis of all morality.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)
There is no duty more obligatory than the repayment of kindness.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)
Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC),
The Confucian Analects I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
Ettiene De Grellet
Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.
George Sand (1804 - 1876)
Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever.
Margaret Cho, weblog, 03-11-04
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
Tennessee Williams (1911 - 1983), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
The Dalai Lama (1935 - )
Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Macbeth", Act 1 scene 5
That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.
William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)
In Gratitude!
Jeanne
