Food for thought (by Azuri)

After a brief hiatus, I am resuming my role as host for the Friday Noon Munch at D/s Academy, and it is my honor and privilege to do so. I do not have any special talent or ability for this role. I'm fairly average, in fact. What I do have is my character, my wit, and my willingness to seek and to build up myself, my family, my community.

As I prepare for the upcoming munch I am reflecting on things that have been at the forefront in my mind and in my opinion at the forefront in the community. With that in mind, I offer the preface to the discussion for Friday January 13, 2012.

Topic: Community Strength

ACTIONS AND WORDS ~

How do we represent our Household, ourselves, our community? Any avatar can say they have X number of years RL experience, or Old Guard Training, or Slave/Sub Training. These statements allow us to share ourselves and where we come from but do NOT give us credibility, authority, or expertise. Just like my perfect avatar doesn't give me a perfect body, hair, clothes, or things in my reality.

So what does represent us? How do we represent in a way that is accurate and productive and strengthens us and our community? It is said that actions speak louder than words. We all hear the rhetoric about values and honor, but how do our actions represent what we believe and live by? How does etiquette and protocol influence our actions and words? How can we match our actions to our rhetoric and build stronger selves, households, and community?

Good judgment is necessary when interacting with others in our community but it's a big mistake to use judgment to make conclusions about someone without factual cause. One of the worst mistakes is to use our profile or role in the community as a personal platform to convey messages which covertly targets others. Even when we disagree, and even if we have empirical evidence of a person's 'fault', how does it serve the community to publicly expose the flaws of others? How do we take personal responsibility and/or collective responsibility?