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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47692 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Thu, 19 January 2012 20:37   |
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Oh, I am so sorry to read that things have gone south with the New Arcadia bell tower. Best wishes.
FairyTales - http://xkcd.com/872/
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47693 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Thu, 19 January 2012 20:41 |
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 anne_d
Messages: 217
Registered: October 2008
Location: Orange County, California |
Senior Member |
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Firstly, hugs and healing vibes. With extra pink sparkles and roses.
Secondly, I'm sorry it's come to this, but glad you've been able to make a decision that will, I hope, make things easier for you in the long run.
Thirdly, more hugs, and I am not worried about doodles, I'm more worried about your health and sanity.
Take care of yourself, the hellhounds, Peter, your books, and then the doodles will take care of themselves. Hang in there.
"The creative urge can come out in any form: in embroidery, in... cooking, in painting, drawing and sculpture, in composing music, as well as in writing books and stories... the artist's inner satisfaction was probably much the same." ~ Agatha Christie
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47695 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Thu, 19 January 2012 20:59 |
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HorsehairBraider
Messages: 161
Registered: August 2009
Location: New Mexico |
Senior Member |
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Well, that's really sad... and in a way it's also a good thing. If you are not appreciated, then it is the right thing to resign, and how foolish of them not to appreciate someone who *is* so loyal and hard-working. And as to *how* you raised the money, why should it matter to them? That is just plain "cutting off your nose to spite your face" on their part.
Perhaps now that you have worked through this, and acted on it, you can get some rest and feel better about the whole thing. Hugs to you. It's sad but change always is, and here is hoping you find a tower that will actually appreciate you.
They say princes learn no art truly, save that of horsemanship. The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a prince as soon as his groom. Ben Jonson
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47704 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Thu, 19 January 2012 21:46 |
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I'm really sorry it came to this, Robin. I think we all know how much you love those bells and how hard this is for you. *sends huge love*
Smooshes!
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47707 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Thu, 19 January 2012 22:03 |
skating librarian
Messages: 576
Registered: October 2008
Location: Vermont |
Senior Member |
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How awful for you, and I'm glad you got out with your love of bells intact.
I can't skate anymore due to foot problems ... it makes me sad, and frustrated having put so much time, energy, effort, money, caring etc. into it for more than 15 years.
At about the same time I was forced to retire from a job I loved and did incredibly well (if I do say so myself).
At the end, between the physical and mental pain, it was very ugly ... but I have come to recognize that other doors opened, and at the moment I am grateful to be able to walk through them.
The relief you feel surely augers better days ahead. Blessed be.
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47710 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Thu, 19 January 2012 22:33 |
EMoon
Messages: 669
Registered: March 2009 |
Senior Member |
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Virtual hugs...soft cuddly shawls around your shoulders...yes, it's a very, very sad thing. You loved your bells; you worked so damn hard to ring even when you felt lousy, to help out the best way you knew. And...you ran into Not Invented Here. Not Our Kind of Thing. Group dynamics at its worst.
I'm glad you're out of it. I agree that mind and body are inextricably intertwined, and once it starts eating you alive, the only way out is...out. (Been there once, with a choir. Hurt like hell.)
(Though, being far less non-violent than many, I think Certain People need a good clout upside the head to shake some sense into them. Not only difficult, cliquish, rigid...but stupid with it. You were making money for them. Bells need money. What part of "Bells need money; she wants to contribute buckets full of money" did not equal "Let's cheer and wave and buy her as much G&B chocolate as she can eat"??? Stupid. And besides--people who drive friends of mine into such misery--GRUMP! But not to worry; I'm sufficient thousands of miles away that all I can do is GRUMP across an ocean at them, and they won't know or care. Well...unless someday some American writer just happens to write a satirical story about a group of people who just happen to ring bells and...oh...get snooty about the person trying to help them.)
Sympathy. I make lousy tea or I'd offer virtual tea. I hope the throat clears up completely in the next 24 hours. I hope the book now agrees to be written really, really fast.
E
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47711 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Thu, 19 January 2012 22:35 |
Audrey Falconer
Messages: 78
Registered: October 2008
Location: Melbourne, Australia |
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I sympathise. There are 6 towers in Melbourne. 2 of them run on by-invitation-only, the third is disintegrating under the internal politics they're suffering from (they've cancelled their dedicated beginner practise, something they've run for years, because of the politics), the fourth has a terrifying only-tell-you-what-you-did-wrong attitude towards beginners, and the fifth is an hour's drive away.
The sixth is *my* tower, and we refer to ourselves as "the happy tower".
We had a visitor from the fourth tower the first time I tried to ring Plain Bob Doubles. "Audrey, well done!" was the response from people from my tower. "You missed the last dodge" was the only (snarled!) comment from the visitor.
You'll find yourself a more congenial tower, and other bells will become "your" bells.
Good luck!
And don't worry about my doodles or my doodlicious Deerskin - any time until 2017 will be fine. I already have 2 copies of Deerskin in the house!
Audrey
PS: Eeek! Only hours after writing that I get a notice to all ringers about a funeral on Tuesday at the fourth tower. Our one time visitor.
[Updated on: Fri, 20 January 2012 07:12]
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47713 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Thu, 19 January 2012 22:56 |
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HorsehairBraider
Messages: 161
Registered: August 2009
Location: New Mexico |
Senior Member |
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EMoon's post reminds me of times when I took devious revenge on persons who had treated others very poorly.
One guy (whose misdeeds I will not go into) was the cook for a camping outfit and it happened that I and a group of friends would be there for a week, so on the way out there I told everyone in my group that although he *SAID* his name was Skinner, it was actually Mike. So all week long everyone called him Mike, much to his puzzlement and aggravation. No blood spilled. 
Another was a local play director. Someone from the paper I worked at wrote a review about his latest play, and he was not happy about it (although it was totally fair and even-handed), so he wrote a 17-page letter to the editor of foaming-at-the-mouth personal insults towards the person who wrote the review. I felt that was a little uncalled for, so... I tried out for his next play. It was a musical called "Pump Boys and Dinettes", featuring sort of country music. Some people get paid to sing; however, some people get paid to not sing. That would be me. So I went to his try-out and played (and sang) "Psycho Killer" by the Talking Heads. Although he had stopped everyone else after only a line or two, he sat there in stunned silence and let me go through the whole song. Again, no blood spilled. And I get to say that I did that, because I did.
Oh yeah. I didn't get the part. 
They say princes learn no art truly, save that of horsemanship. The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a prince as soon as his groom. Ben Jonson
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47719 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Fri, 20 January 2012 01:01 |
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Loramir
Messages: 15
Registered: October 2008
Location: South Carolina, USA |
Junior Member |
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I'm a longtime lurker but daily reader, embarking on one of my very infrequent delurking expeditions to offer sympathy and tell you, for my part anyway, don't worry about the doodles for now. I'm looking forward to mine, but not nearly as much as I'm looking forward to Shadows. I enjoy the anticipation!
And I know it must be pretty unpleasant making a decision like that, but the decision is made, however painfully, and healing can begin, rather than the ongoing misery of staying in a situation where you're not happy.
I have a quote from one of your blog entries a while back which I have stuck in a folder of quotes I like, which goes "While constructive worry can do useful work, what I’m calling fretting does only pull you down. And creating your own reality in my view is to do with finding a good recipe for lemonade when all you’ve got is lemons, not giving yourself a headache trying to turn them into pomegranates by mind-waves." It looks to me like your tower is chucking lemons at you pretty hard (it also sounds like they may be insane, rejecting offered money), so you may as well take your lemonade and your money and go somewhere else rather than make yourself miserable and/or sick dealing with apparently crazy people who don't know a good thing when they've got it.
My sympathies, virtual chocolate, and virtual tea, which is probably just as well, since my real tea is the nasty American kind in teabags.
Loramir
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47729 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Fri, 20 January 2012 03:40 |
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*wraps Robin up in a very big hug *
*mutters dark things about certain idiotic, up themselves people who need a damned good slapping *
*offers to lead a group to administer said slapping*
*hugs Robin again very tightly*
*sends emergency chocolate*
Don't worry about the dust bunnies, they're just here to guard the treasure.....
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47733 is a reply to message #47732 ] |
Fri, 20 January 2012 05:25 |
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*hugs* Hang in there. We're all rooting for you.
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47736 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Fri, 20 January 2012 07:03 |
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L.R.K.
Messages: 1090
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden |
Senior Member |
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Good... grief! Great... Heavens... above!
Whyever would anyone find your way of raising money unsuitable? What could possibly be wrong with it? It's hardly as if you've been selling improper drawings of... er... dubious morality... so to speak... thus tarnishing the good name of New Arcadia and bringing the reputation of the tower crushing down into the dust... But, I'll say no more on what I think of this - it wooldn't be... diplomatic, and it certainly wouldn't be Pollyanna!
I do think that, however, that one sometimes just "knows" when the right time has come for doing something. It's like when I quit my last job - which I loved - but there were - outside problems. Anyway, I thought of quitting for months before I did - but one day, it just "clicked" for me, and I suddenly knew that it was the right thing to do. I think that had I quit earlier, I would have regretted it - had I quit later, I'd have been sorry.
Anyway. Sympathies. And have some virtual chocolate.
Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47737 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Fri, 20 January 2012 08:14 |
theplotchickens
Messages: 4
Registered: January 2011
Location: US |
Junior Member |
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Eating a sympathy chocolate RIGHT THIS SECOND!
Oh, the grungier bits of human grouping! The sort of treatment directed at you right now is just the sort of thing that happens when people are more involved with their egos than the greater good of the cause they allegedly care about. It shows where their true interests lie, and clearly it's not in the bell repair. I don't take well to that sort of thing myself, and have left a couple of American groups over similar situations (Although not money-related. More to do with power, I think. Is that more American?)
Congratulations on taking the steps you need to open space in your life for a more harmonious bell tower relationship. It IS sad to lose "your" bells. It's fabulous to have a chance to explore NEW bells!
Eat something delicious. Drink something indulgent. Snuggle the pups. Buy a new flower. Look at something beautiful. May I suggest peeking at these lovely collars? Writer and artist Jackie Morris posted about them yesterday, and they're quite something. (Made in England, too.) http://kitschcollars.co.uk/collar%20range.htm
And please know that my book/doodle can wait until whenever the fancy or free time takes you to it. Bidding was only intended as a help, not as any stress or pressure for you. In fact, if it makes your life more tranquil, you can consider my payment an outright donation (to whatever bell tower is worthy of accepting your many gifts) rather than a bid on an item.
I'm now going to have a cup of Earl Grey and watch the hummingbirds, in your honor.
Nancy P, writing with bird feathers in her hair and green bits around her shoes.
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47741 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Fri, 20 January 2012 10:21 |
Birdreader
Messages: 48
Registered: August 2011
Location: Chicago |
Member |
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Hugs and roses and chocolate. People are sometimes hard to figure out. But remember - What goes around comes around. It will come back to haunt them that they lost someone who cared so much. Sending you healing thoughts and good wished.
Birdreader
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| Re: I am not looking forward to writing this post [message #47742 is a reply to message #47691 ] |
Fri, 20 January 2012 10:25 |
Birdreader
Messages: 48
Registered: August 2011
Location: Chicago |
Member |
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Sending you hugs, roses and chocolate. Please remember that what goes around comes around. They will regret losing such a dedicaited ringer. I am sending you healing thoughts and good wished.
PS as one of the backlogged doodles - please don't stress. Your health is more important.
PPs - just finished rereading Beauty. Such a great story.
Birdreader
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I'm so sorry, Robin! I hope that you can find other, more fulfilling places to ring. And other ringers more worthy of ANY hard-earned bell-repair money, as well as more appreciative of people just doing their best.
