<font color="blue"> TBN is truly a place where one can share their needs and get excellent answers without any BS or put downs.
Muhammad has created and maintains a real treasure here.
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Ernie, you just said a mouthful; very nicely put. This place really is amazing. A friend of mine recently made the comment, "Why would you need a whole website just to talk about tractors?" Oy. Leaving aside for the time being the astonishing number of considerations involved in performing an almost infinite number of tasks with a mind-boggling array of attachments under a nearly infinite variety of conditions; as I am so fond of saying, "TBN is not just about tractors", and it sure isn't.
Words are failing me as I try to express how valuable TBN is; not just for finding helpful, unbiased opinions on any subject under the sun concerning anything that occupies space and has mass, but also for sharing thoughts on less tangible subjects like this one, and so many others. And maybe most important of all, TBN allows us to interact with people we never would have met, learn about them, learn from them, and learn about ourselves in the process.
I wish it were true that there were never any put-downs here on TBN, but it's not. While the vast majority of the people here are just fantastic (Hi Jim /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif), there are still a lot who are not. I am tempted to use terms like "sarcastic, hostile, insulting, and just plain mean", but those are subjective terms, and I prefer objectivity. Suffice it to say that there is a lot of communication here that is not in keeping with the Golden Rule, and that I feel is the product of unresolved anger and a resultant lack of forgiveness, kindness, compassion and understanding.
There is a saying that "you can't give away what you don't have". If you don't have the aforementioned "good" qualities within you, you're not going to be able to give them to others, and it's going to show, thanks to the cold, hard "reality" of the written word.
Unlike a face-to-face discussion, where hormones and emotions are much more likely to cloud our better judgment and cause us to say things that we might wish we hadn't, the typed word is much different. We have all the time we need to say exactly what we want to say. If we type something that is openly hostile or constitutes an attack rather than an honest and gently spoken opinion, then we might want to look long and hard at ourselves and take responsibility for our own actions. Other people do not have the power to "make us angry", any more than they have the power to make us happy. No, ultimately it all comes from within.
Nothing is all black and white, and as long as we're breathing we're likely going to have some ego (although it just might be the case that man has the mental capacity to largely overcome millions of years of evolution), and are going to bristle when we're attacked, especially when we deem it "unfair". But to me, the measure of a man is how he responds to the situations in which he finds himself, and the amount of responsibility he takes for his own actions.
Off topic? I honestly don't think so. It took me more than 40 years to come to these realizations; to learn to let go of blame, to learn the importance of forgiveness, non-judgment, compassion and understanding. As Jim and others have said, age can be, and usually is, an asset, not a liability. Of course there are countless situations where the eagle eyes, lightning reflexes, physical strength and nearly boundless energy of youth are required; but for all the other situations, the wisdom that can come with age is a precious commodity indeed. He who truly knows himself can make some amazing contributions to a company, a community, or to the world.
Just my opinion,
John
