6 October 2010

Sermon

The last post was something different - a sort of blogging experiment that I arranged with Lady Elizabeth of Burton Agnes Hall, East Yorkshire. If you hadn't figured it out, she wrote my last post and I wrote hers. Being technologically advanced computer users, we were able to email our posts and pictures to each other ahead of a carefully synchronised posting at midnight on Sunday. I expect we will be nominated for Blogger's Innovation Medal later this year.

An enjoyable collaboration with a nice, intelligent woman who for one reason or another has not always found blogging a comfortable or easy activity to get into. Whereas most of we Yorkshire folk are hard as nails - about as sensitive as the rocky outcrops on Ilkley Moor - a few of us are almost as soft as Aunt Bessie's instant Yorkshire Pudding mix.

Comments we make after other bloggers' postings can sometimes be misconstrued. Receivers can jump to wrong conclusions. Equally, it is easy for senders to pitch comments inappropriately. I suppose this is all bound to happen when the medium is the electronic keyboard and the bloggers we are exchanging comments with are far distant and unseen. In ordinary face-to-face relationships, which are symbiotic, what we say is clarified through body language and further explanation. We also learn to hold our tongues, keeping many possible wisecracks or objections under wraps for the sake of social harmony.

Therefore, when commenting, would it be wisest only to write lame and pleasant remarks? Platitudes? "...Another marvellous post which I enjoyed reading" or "Thank you. You have taught me something today." Do you know these sayings - "Manners maketh the man" and "Manners don't cost anything but are worth a lot"? In everyday life, my manners are exemplary. They call me Mr Please. However, in my estimation, if your whole life is about being well-mannered and always saying the right thing for fear of upsetting people, it will be extremely dull and rather false. We've got to laugh, to rib, to be light-hearted and sometimes to reveal the thoughts that are usually hidden, even if they may cause some offence. As long as we are not downright abusive, we owe this honesty to ourselves.

Sermon over. Here's a horse I snapped on Lady Elizabeth's vast estate. But look carefully. It's an optical illusion. Can you see it? If commenting, please don't say what you see as this could spoil someone else's revelation. In the light of what I have just said about comments, I guess that's a rather ironic request!
A horse is a horse of course of course...

13 comments:

  1. Yes I do see it! A handsome horse if ever there was one!
    I know what you mean about the comments. I recently had one that rubbed me up the wrong way. I thought "How rude!" If you don't have anything pleasant to say you can just leave the blog and don't return, there's no need to be rude !
    Cheers
    Helen

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  2. After much eye squinting, I think I see it, unless it's just my fevered imagination.

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  3. Do you have your tongue in your cheek or do you like blowing your own trumpet?
    Hope that is not too platitudinous for you.
    I have a friend, Colin, who has the same opinion about comments. Personally, I don't mind what kind of a comment I get, except for rude or abusive, as it lets me know that people are reading my posts. Sometimes it is difficult to think up intelligent comments but then I'm not that intelligent but I was born in Yorkshire.

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  4. HELSIE-HELEN What a lovely lady you are!
    SHOOTING PEE What a splendid fellow you are!
    DIANE Thanks for dropping by my little Yorkshire rose. Sorry that your parents took you away from Paradise when you were only little. Anyone who is able to use a word like "platitudinous" must be intelligent! So who's really got their tongue in their cheek?

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  5. You are either a naughty boy....or, that is one lucky horse. I would guess the former.

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  6. A friend once asked "does internet have a sense of humour?" - still waiting for an answer .... by the way, marvellous post today.

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  7. Another splendid post to add to the Pudding Oeuvre. Now I like getting comments on my blog - yes, even from politicians! - and I generally don't mind if they disagree with me - - and I like black humour and some sick humour - - the only time I get on my high horse (ooh - see what I did there?) is if they could be considered offensive to friends or family who read my blog - I feel I should fight their corner!

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  8. MOUNTAIN LADY Do horses look in mirrors?
    BRIAN What a fine chap you are sir!
    DAPHNE My "oeuvre" is positively bulging! What a fine (Yorkshire) lady you are! But I wouldn't want to fight with you - unless of course it was mud-wrestling!

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  9. SOLUTION12:00 pm

    If you didn't spot it already, the white blaze on the horse's face is in the shape of an Australian lady blogger kneeling provocatively as Australian lady bloggers are wont to do.

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  10. Just call me 'Dingbat..'4:26 pm

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  11. My old eyes are still working. An interesting optical illusion, indeed.
    I've newly come to your blog (after reading your comments at other places) and am enjoying myself immensely.

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  12. Yes, I saw it, but someone must have "planted" it there??!!

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  13. PAT - ARKANSAS I am honoured that a lady from the Clintons' home state has dropped by. Welcome! And thanks for the nice comment.
    SUNSHINE Nature can do surprising things! I think this is how Tommy Lee chatted up Pamela Anderson!

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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