A follow-up to this post.
Thank you guys soooo so much! I am so grateful to all of you who have reached out to us with love and concern and showed us just how much aLBoP means to you!! Wow! I’m overwhelmed with how loving and active so many of you have been! The response has been tremendous, and while I so appreciate the monetary sacrifices so many of you have made in the last two days, I equally appreciate those who have come forward and said, “I can’t give money, but what can I do?”
Several of you, though, were hurt by feeling like maybe I was too harsh when a lot of you had had good reasons for not giving to aLBoP. From not knowing that there even was a donate option, or where to find it, to your own financial struggles, many of you had good, well-intentioned reasons for not giving before. While I’m truly sorry if you were hurt by the post on Wednesday, here are my reasons for posting what I did. This is adapted from my comment response on a friend’s website who talked about how Wednesday’s post made her feel. After I wrote it, my INFJ said it was exactly what all of you needed to hear 🙂 ~
“…That being said, even though my post hurt you, doesn’t mean it was the wrong move for me to write it and post it. I’ve gotten several responses from sweet people like you, assuming that the post was a knee-jerk response to the hurt I was feeling, rather than a calculated move that I had to work up to, that was very hard for me to stand up and do. I’m an ENTP and it’s much easier for me to make a joke and laugh off what I’m doing as just a clever little project, than it is to acknowledge the scope of what I’m trying to accomplish. This is really hard to type at the moment! 🙂
But I need to own up to the fact that it had really gotten that bad. That the voices of the sweet people who loved aLBoP were getting drowned by the words, attitudes and actions of the loud, entitled crowd who had a personal investment in pretending aLBoP was no different than any mbti website that wants to pigeon hole people for their own enmity-filled validation. And I truly wasn’t sure that any of you sweet people were really going to do anything about it. I wasn’t exaggerating the doubt I had that the purpose of aLBoP was *ever * going to work. Lack of donations just seemed like a tragic symbol to me of how little people were willing to act…
…It’s not about aLBoP as a website. Yes, if I’m going to continue (which I am), it’d be nice to be able to afford our own mortgage without help, eventually, but that’s not the point. We’re trying to gather people who are willing to take action, change, and stand up, so that together we can actually do something to fix this culture. We’re trying to enable the people who already want to do wonderful things in this world, but feel stopped by their own weaknesses and insecurities, or feel like the opposition to try is just too much, or those who want to do something, but just don’t know what.
You obviously want to do great things, but feel like there are distinct blockages in your way, and on top of that it seems like you have doubts about what you could do that would really make any difference anyway. I believe that there are so many good people who want to really do real heroic things to change the world around us for the better, but most people believe that in the end, efforts to change the world end up rather futile. And honestly, when uncoordinated and without perspective, most of them are. But with the right tools to change oneself first, they don’t have to be futile.
I see so much depression in good people—people who so deserve to feel happy—and though I know the chemicals coursing through their bodies are real and so powerful, that doesn’t mean there is nothing to be done psychologically. I see amazing people like ENFP Robin Williams, who spent their whole lives helping people, just to feel like their whole life’s work was futile, what with all the #*-% in this world. And I think, ‘I can fix that! I know how!’ People just have to be willing to listen, act and apply, which is never an easy feat. Changing is hard. Looking at the baggage deep within you is hard!
But if people are just willing to try, just willing to put forth the effort, even when it’s scary to step out into the darkness, then we can actually do something to fix the world! Something that will actually work! I’ve seen the principles work in my own life and others’ and I know I can help other people with them too.
Sorry, that was long (you guys are used to that from me ;)). But those are the reasons I thought it was worth it to shock people into action. I’m sorry if *you* didn’t need it and it hurt you that I thought you did. But know that some people, possibly many, did…”
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