Let us confess…

 

Ever read Patrick Fernando’s poignant and aptly worded poem titled “The Fisherman Mourned by his Wife?” It’s one of those pieces that I have always been extremely fond of because of its realistic look at Sri Lankan marriage and relationships. 

The line “let us confess” starts off an information flow that really tugs at the heart. I have this tendency to quote from pieces of literature that have moved me, to help me to come to my point, like in the case with this poem. The last 24 hours in the Sri Lankan blogsphere have been more than strange. It’s easy to say that I was victimized by another blogger, as was my friend and fellow blogger, Jade. But to call ourselves victims is so passé isn’t it? After all, don’t victims generally crawl into holes and stay there until it’s safe to come back out and play again? 

I was saving the Patrick Fernando quote for another post which I wrote a long time ago and was waiting for the right time to post. I read it yesterday and I realized the need for it had passed so it may never see the light of day I guess. Sad, since I think it was one of my best written pieces. Never ye mind that. I have a few things to say and I’ll get right to the point now, since the last few lines were totally off it – 

The story goes a little something like this: 

Jade wrote a beautiful post about me that I was more that merely touched about. Passionately Patient jumped on the bandwagon and wrote a post herself about how that post and some others that I have written have revealed so much about us and made it seem quite strange because the information seemed warped. Both Jade and I commented, giving her the facts and asked her to please edit or remove the post in question. She did and I thanked her for it. Moments later another post appeared on her blog containing two short stories. I hadn’t really had the time to read them and another blogger who did gave me a call and asked me to later on in the evening. Reading them, I realized that one of them contained the advertising industry’s warped, gossipy version of what happened to me a year ago. It was how anyone on the outside who didn’t know my story would have looked at it. 

I have 2 things to tell both Jade and PP based on what I’ve written in the above paragraph and the repercussions of it. Here they are : 

Jade. It’s your philosophies in life that people should adopt, not mine. If I’m a tigress, you’re a firebrand. You’ve got more balls than most men I know and I am proud and honoured to know you. You’re an amazing writer, a talented woman, with great taste in everything including your friends   You’re never afraid to speak your mind and when I shush up and give in sometimes, you remind me of why I shouldn’t. These have resulted in epic blow-ups between the two of us which have brought us much closer as a result and I think the reason is a lack of betrayal. We’ll shoot our mouths off about our opinions of each other shamelessly, but that comes from really knowing one another, which I highly doubt other people have the liberty to do, simply because they don’t know us. Really knowing someone takes a lot more than reading their blog or listening to industry gossip after all. You’re one of the people who helped me to come out of my shell and live a little, which I’m more than exercising now. For that and more I thank you with all my heart. 

PP. You don’t know me & thanks to your repeatedly off opinions of me, I will now disregard your existence entirely. I don’t care who you are, I have done nothing to hurt you and yet you opted to write 2 posts tarnishing me. It’s alright. You’re entitled to freedom of speech and I’m entitled to ignore you. I will say one thing to you before I do though, the base of your story may have been true, but the poor helpless little girl you seemed to have pegged me as doesn’t exist. She never did. If I can take the beating your story said I did and still smile, bring it on. You don’t scare me, no one does. I’m not too worried about anonymity. The reason I blog as themissingsandwich is because the title comes from a philosophy I believe in. Everyone knows who I am. I’ve been tarnished in the papers, by other bloggers, had my life ripped apart and I am still standing. Living. Flourishing. Laughing. No one can bring me down, honey. “Remember : far better than you have sworn to do the same. Go look for them now” (Attia of the Julii)

That being said. Hasn’t there been enough drama on Kottu this year to last us all a lifetime? Enough na?