FredL

OK, thanks to probably unwitting encouragement from Attila and Fish, let me post one more comment on what the issue seems to have turned out to be.

I think that on a perfect forum (for me, at least) the responses I would have expected might be along the lines of, "OK, Fred, you've left me quite curious. I know you well enough to belive you to be a pretty honest guy. Unusually so, even. I find myself wondering how you could entertain the slightest doubt as to the principle of asking permission before removing trees from somebody else's property. I also have to admit to being a little shocked to have you admit to having done it on a public forum. Does this mean you advocate it? I, personally, can not imagine circumstances under which I would do such a thing, but maybe I just haven't had enough experience of life to do so. Have I understood you correctly? Could you comment on these questions?

Look, I'm not feeling hurt, angry, resentful or much of anything else about the comments I've recieved. It's just how some people think and I choose not to take it personally. I don't feel this puts me on a superior plane and I'm not trying to angrily retaliate in some sneaky passive-aggressive way. It's just that I've found that getting angry at people because of how they think just doesn't usually work out very well for me. As far as getting kicked when I'm down, I've always admired Attila's compassion and sense of humanity, but, really, I'm just fine. It's only words, after all. We did get to a point in the discussion where I was starting to feel, "Wow! This is truly going nowhere and I just don't have enough common ground with the folks leading the discussion for it to ever be very fruitful.". Now this doesn't mean I think you are bad people. It just means we think about things very differently. I'm sure that the folks that are getting so impassioned would make very good neighbors and we'd get along fine. I think they might be very surprized at what a good neighbor I am.

I do find the comments interesting about black and white vs shades of grey. That's a conversation I could really get into! As well as a number of other thoughts that have been expressed. Personally, I was a bit surprized that we got into such impassioned comments on a subject that I wasn't really intending to talk about. Surprized? Well, the problem is I REALLY don't think the way you do. And I'm constantly being misunderstood as a result. The people that DO think like I do, for the most part refrain from participating.

There was one other comment I'd like to say something about. The one concerning why the people that PM'd me don't rise to my defense in fair and open combat on the Forum. Well, that's exactly what they are trying to avoid: getting into heated arguments. I have no intention of engaging in angry arguments but find myself described as such things as "a ticking time bomb" and as a common thief. Well, look, I'm not mad at anybody because they've come to these conclusions, but, at the same time, I doubt that we're going to have a conversation that either of us profits much from. Which has me wondering whether those who refrain from joining the discussion know something I don't.

Peace, Fred