Hi all,
I have always been the kind of person that speaks first and thinks about what I have said later and all too often it is too late by then! This is a bad bad way to be!! With the advent of the internet you would think that actually having to type the words would slow down my mouth a little and make me less opinionated and more gracious. Not at all!! Somehow the ease with which I can blast off a post makes it harder to stop and think about what I am saying and how my words may affect other people.

I passionately believe that everyone is entitled to have and express their own opinions and not be ridiculed because of the beliefs they hold.

However when I get around people who hold firm convictions or who are autocratic in how they express themselves I get this irresistable urge to say and think the exact opposite of what they are extolling (whatever that may be).

In my enthusiasm to give an alternative point of view I end up being just as autocratic myself and usually give an entirely wrong impression of who I am. I have done this countless times on this forum, and to many people most of whom did not deserve it at all. I know only too well how quick I am to take the moral high ground and more often than not I have no right to assume such a position.

I really hate to think that my words or actions may have hurt or offended another human being. I know that it sounds soft and wimpy but it really gets to me and always has done. Even more so when I think that I could actually offend or hurt someone I have never even met.

What I often think of as funny or witty others could easily find vicious and biting and that is really not who I am.

Most recently I had a go at B2 for nothing but expressing his religious convictions. I want to say here that it really was nothing personal B2. More a generalisation of how religion is often extolled on this forum. Why I got so het up about it this time rather than any other I will never know. What I do know is that I have felt terrible ever since and should have kept my big mouth firmly shut.

In truth my 'spiritual' inclinations are probably not that different from many here. I am not particularly religious but do believe in God. I don't go to church...(I used to but they did not want me for obvious reasons). I try to live my life by doing anything I can to help others whatever or whoever they may be and try not to purposefully harm anyone by my words or actions. I hate being judged and so try not to judge anyone else....(that is the bit I am really really bad at!)

The whole point of this post is really to say that if my words have offended any of you or hurt anyone in anyway then I am sorry and it probably was not intentional.

My own failings aside (and they are many ) I do believe that what makes this place special more than anything else is that our combined love of, and passion for music trancsends all our other differences.

The best way I could think of therefore to extend the hand of friendship to B2 and to anyone else I may have irked with my recent post was through music.

Unfortunately I intended this song to be far better than it turned out. Still the intent is still there and the intent was to show that in many ways we are all heading the same way......just sometimes by different paths!

I wanted this recording to sound like a jam session but it all ended up a little bit muddled. It sounds better through headphones (doesn't it always ), not quite as mixed up! Still I hope you take it in the way it is meant. Please ignore my attempts at old lady style piano playing and the subsequent duff notes

Mansion over the Hilltop

Very best wishes to all, whoever, whatever or however you may be!
Tony



------------------
www.tonywmusic.co.uk