[Arwen]

Originally Posted by Ms Cyn

There is a book... For some reason it came into my mind while I was reading this thread...

I can't remember the name of it.. It's about a society that frowns on strong emotions, strong colors, over dramatic use of language.. Everything is for the good of the community... Everyone has classes.. when you get to a certain age, then you do a certain thing.. The main charater is a boy who is going to become the keeper of memories and feelings.. He will hold all the stronger emotions for the comunity.. So they can be pure...

That's The Giver by Lois B(urton?) and it blew me away when I read it this past year for a class.

It's the first of three novels apparently. I've only read that one.

I see where you could get that energy from this thread. I really do.

However, I think it is the intent. I laughed my REAR off Saturday night while watching Robin Williams. And believe you me, the man was offensive as all get out. No really! He hit some buttons pretty hard--one of them being some stereotypes we've discussed here.

But I think if I said to you, Cyn, it makes me uncomfortable when you use the word "blue" around me (and gave you a compelling reason) that you would probably not use that word around me.

Knowing our audience. For me, it's about knowing my audience. In a large community like this, I can't know my audience that well. That's probably how smaller more intimate groups get formed (the so-called "cool kids" syndrome.)

We gravitate towards those that laugh and feel and emote like us.

Can we expect all of us here to homogenize with the rest? Nope. Not gonna happen. Because, like in The Giver, our world would become bland. But I can try not to intentionally hurt someone.