Perhaps I should avoid debates. I’m not good at them. I’ve been carrying on a debate by email for the last few days, and boy, am I getting schooled.
Why must I learn as I go? Why can’t I just know everything?
I’m not losing the debate, per se, but it seems that at every turn I get a clear view of my ignorance. I am, frankly, racing to stay ahead of my colleague. On Friday I had just pressed ‘send’ on an email containing a careful statement of my position only to turn the page of my colleague’s book and realize I’d missed a chapter–and you know it would be about what I’d just defended, and you know he’d use some of the same quotes as I to defend his own, opposite, viewpoint.
Ugh. It was to the drawing board (and Amazon for more books) for me.
Social media has also been an embarrassing, invigorating mess of learning for me. As an author who aspires to make writing a paying vocation, social media is a must. So, without consulting experts or anything, I just sort of put myself out there. I did horrible things like tweet only links and self-promotion and being rather socially awkward.
And then I was recommended Rise of the Machines by Kristen Lamb, and now I realize I’ve been doing it ALL WRONG! I wish I could delete my Twitter and Facebook profiles and start over, but I can’t.
Why must I learn as I go? Why must I make a mess?
Now that I’ve learned that social media is, get this, for socializing, it has all become so much more fun. But since I haven’t finished the book yet, I suppose I’m in for a few more forehead-slapping moments. Sigh.
And as to the debate? The beauty of this debate is that, even if I don’t win my antagonist over to my side, I will have learned a TON. We’re debating theology–not nit-picky stuff, but things that are of vital importance to our faith. The very fact that I have to race to read ahead shows that I’ve been sorely lacking in my studies.
The Apostle Paul said that God gave him a ‘thorn in the flesh’ to keep from becoming conceited. I suspect my propensity toward mess-making has the same purpose. Heck, if Paul needed to be kept in line, I must really need help.
Laurie Woodward said “The lesson continues until the lesson is learned.” I suppose I better get to it, huh?
In that spirit, for the first time ever, I have composed a post entirely on my phone, with the aid of a Bluetooth keyboard. So, if you see anything out of wack, let me know, eh?
Geralyn Wichers 
Good thoughts here.
You may like to check this out:
Hmm, good article. I’m not sure what your connection between my post and your is, but I agree with your points.
I consider my iPhone my greatest business tool (aside, from my own person, which is my brand, so to speak) but at the same time, it is the greatest time-waster and disrupter of my life.
“The line separating good and evil passes… right through every human heart — and through all human hearts” (Solzhenitsyn). Not to say that, as humans, we decide what is right and wrong–but that we can use almost anything for good or evil.