I got involved in a recent exchange on an LJ community, not unlike many exchanges I've had. The other guy challenged something I said. Now, my instinct has always been to explain myself more fully, as if I wasn't understood by the other. Even when I'm being baited, or the other is simply argumentative, I usually respond -- patiently, I hope. And I'm reluctant to just abandon a set of exchanges, because I don't want to be rude. So I have often kept a discussion going, even when I was tired of it.
Well, I just got a response that I consider as outright idiotic and beside-the-point as any I have ever seen. I considered taking up the threads of the discussion and trying to bring the person back to the point. Then I thought, Naaah -- let it go.
It's not about who got the last word. It's not about who "wins" the argument. God has called us to peace (and if I respond to this one, I'll blow my peace, whatever it might do to the other person). I said my bit, let it stand on its own. Better to just -- fade away.
