Defending the faith

This photo has nothing to do with the post - I'm just excited that Harry William is willing to come to someone other than his mother - I did baby duty Sunday while Dawn was in Primary and Harry had to go home to sleep (he'd worked all night.) I mean, a grandkid who doesn't want you to hold him is a Grandma's deepest sorrow!!

But on to my task at hand.

I was recently "embroiled' in some blogging repartee that got me thinking.

Eliza had posted about her two week vegan adventure she was going to try. And she got a lot of responses. Like any good mother, I warned her of the perils involved in such a foray - mainly because mothers do that sort of thing. And also because I have a close friend whose daughter-in-law was a vegan and was even under the care of a nutritionist while pregnant, but had to start eating meat and dairy because they just couldn't get the volume of nutrients into her in any other way.

So then another respondent cast some aspersions on my concerns - and "them's fightin' words" in my book. So I actually went to her husband's blog, because she suggested it in her comment, and was a bit taken aback at the guy's comparison of Michael Vick to omnivores!

So I commented - and he commented back - and I commented back again - and I haven't checked since then.

But the upshot of all this is that it reminded me of how I feel when people move away from Monrovia or LA or California. They can't just say how much they love their new home. They have to say something bad about Monrovia or LA or California.

Does it occur to them that Monrovia or LA or California is my home? And even with all it's flaws, I love it.

Grandpa Terrill understood this concept. He was talking with Dad once and said something to the effect that "Well, Harry, it's large, and crowded, and smoggy, and over-priced, and even dangerous in some places. But it's home!" (I think it was when Grandma was trying to get him to move away.)

I think when we are excited about something we can go overboard with our recommendations that everyone else should get excited about it too. And I think we could be a lot more sensitive. I've been offended more than once by ward members who've moved away and when they come to visit they go on and on about Monrovia's deficiencies. We know about Monrovia's deficiencies, but we've chosen to stay!

This is not to say that Eliza was trying to convert anyone - I think her respondents were though. I think Eliza was just being informative. As she often is; that is what makes her blog interesting to read.

I'm going to try to take my own advice too.

If I fail, you can remind me what I said!