Two-day rule

It’s been easy to NOT blog this week. With everything going on, blogging seems unimportant—probably because it is compared to other things. And yet, there are always things I want to comment on.

Wanting to comment on something doesn’t mean it’s always a good idea to do so. Recently I made a change I haven’t mentioned before: The two-day rule. If I see something I want to comment on, especially something that pisses me off or otherwise riles me up, I try to wait until the second day (or longer) before I write a post.

Not surprisingly, the things that rile me up on day one no longer do so, or not as much, on day two (or after). This is one of my nods toward that call to greater civility: If I hold back, I’m much more likely to be restrained in my rhetoric.

I could point out the irony of holding back when my opponents on the right never do, but their bad behaviour is beside the point: If I’m as bad as them, I’m bad, and I want to be better than that—or them.

None of which is meant to suggest that I won’t be intemperate in my rhetoric in the future, because I know I will be. If someone or their behaviour pisses me off, it pisses me off and I’ll call them as I see them. What I’m saying is that sometimes I’ll simply choose not to post anything at all about that pissed-off-ness.

So if in future my rhetoric is unrestrained and more forceful than might seem wise, it is probably better than it would have been had I posted immediately. These days, the right pisses me off more than ever, and restraint is hard. Using the two-day rule is the best I can offer and, to me, it is far more than enough.