I'm a pretty "middle of the road" guy. I've spent most of my life trying to avoid being hated. And I remember when I first started writing this blog and other columns, someone said it would take awhile for me to find my voice. Now, there seems to be a convergence of sorts happening. I've spent a lot of hours lately trying to understand why we do the things we do. And as I've gained confidence in my understanding, I've ventured forth more and more often to provide my view of things. Generally I've had great responses to this writing, but every so often I get negative comment and I've noticed the tone of these has been more and more vitriolic as I've "found my voice".
I remember someone saying once you know you're hitting the right cords when you polarize your audience and people either hate you or love you. If you're in the middle, you're just boring. Having spent a lot of my life in the boring but safe middle ground it's a little shocking when someone takes the time to comment that your writing is "tripe", "long and extremely wind baggy" and "self serving". On the other side, numerous people have also commented that they find my writing "thoughtful" and "insightful". As hard as it seems to be for me to accept, this must mean I'm doing something right. At least people are taking the time to comment. I guess I just have to develop a thicker skin.