I'm not sure where to post this, but this is the shortest thread that really deals with the April fool explosion...

I followed that thread briefly...then lost track of it for a couple days...until curiosity prompted me to look and see what drollery was being bandied about..and I was shocked!!

Personally, I never DREAMED that many would take it seriously..1).it was, after all..APRIL 1...and,2) if it were true, I can't imagine that it would be posted as a thread..Max could easily put a BIG banner across everything in blinking red letters...3)things like that almost NEVER happen suddenly...you get warnings and discussions first..

but since it did get to some of us, I think it makes a certain kind of point..we are all very different people...and not just superfically..We process information in very different ways. I looked at the thread, said to my self, "silly joke"...and ignored it...some took it to heart and got very upset. .....and then I read this small story in the Washington Post, and it helped me deal with what I have seen here among my friends in the last few days.Please read it, but do NOT read too much into it...just note that science is discovering some very interesting thing about us all every day...

We are all here because of a shared love for music and camaraderie...but we simply do NOT approach it the same way..look at the many disputes and mis-understandings in the last 3 years...especially about differing attitudes toward humor! A ribald remark is funny to some, offensive to others....and it takes much longer to sort it all out than it did to make the joke..(the NOI system seems to be helping..*grin*) I suspect that all of us can point to places in our lives...family...church..music groups...work...etc., where situations arise in which people simply do not 'see' things the same way and will never agree. The only saving grace is that we usually realize that it is worth it to compromise, adjust, and forgive in order to have something important. This--the Mudcat community--is worth almost ANY amount of 'taking remarks with a grain of salt'...and please remember...all we see are words on a screen...we have no body language, voice inflections, or visual cues to help us know how our remarks are being processed..if in ANY doubt, take a few extra minutes to read what you are about to post.

There is a story..(apocryphal?)about a circus midget whose friends though they would play a joke on him..he always use a little cane in his act- it was part of his identity. So they would sneak into his room each night and saw a tiny bit from the bottom of the cane... Well after a week or two, the guy was convinced the he was growing taller...and he had NO other way to make a living in his life, all he WAS was a midget...so he committed suicide. I guess humor is what you think it is...