Pdxfashionpioneer wrote:I'm not sure an apology is in order.
One is not necessary, although the sentiment is appreciated. We have fairly thick skins, and also understand that getting the occasional scratch is part and parcel of trying to herd cats.
When I dabbled in rock climbing I was told the only to know what your limits are is to exceed them. That's why we stressed safety so.
Of course, when you exceeded your limits, you probably learned something thereby stretching your limits that much further.
This is actually excellent advice, but safety (physical and emotional) needs to be paramount any time you're going to be pushing the envelope. By its very nature, you're extending into territory you're not familiar with and since you're not familiar with it, failures can be sudden, unexpected, and not immediately intuitive (other than falling off a rock, but that'll be the end result of something else). The trick is learning from the inevitable failures.
We learn vastly more from failure than we do from success, for if we do not dare to push boundaries we never advance
Going forward, let's self-censor name-calling, but accept that calling out dysfunctional behavior is how we learn what works and what doesn't.
Name-calling isn't something that's supposed to happen in polite society and really amounts to little more than bad behaviour. We do not need to agree on everything (or anything at all!), but when discussing things we really should have the common decency to remain respectful.
We can call out dysfunctional behaviours, but must beware that what's dysfunctional for one may be normal for another.