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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Fri, 3 Dec 2004 19:05:42 -0600
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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Sue Harris wrote:
 >> I seldom contribute because I feel I would either be ignored, the
list people would not accept my postings, or someone would just call me
stupid even when I think I DO truly have something to contribute that I
haven't prevously seen on the forum.  <<

    Oh Sue!  Just go on and be stupid, like the rest of us.  I'm on a
few scholarly level forums, and I probably make a complete ass of myself
on a daily basis.  Besides, you might be surprised to find that even
your "stupid" posts resonate with other members, and develop into
something worth for us all.  Moreover, not only are you cheating us out
of your contributions, but you are missing out on the fun.  It's fun
making an ass of yourself, trust me, I know first hand.  And it shifts
the learning mode into high gear to put your thoughts into words.
    To be honest Sue, we're all stupid, even the sharpest among us, and
in our past.  And the smart ones have long since discovered that the
more you know the more you know that you don't know.  It's only the
young, and uneducated, that think they know everything.  So join the
ranks of us stupid ones, and have some fun.  And damn it, quit cheating
us out of your contributions.

"I would rather have my ignorance than another man's knowledge, because
I have so much more of it."
- MT - Letter to W.D. Howells, 2/10/1875

"Will a day come when the race will detect the
funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at
them--and by laughing at them destroy them?
For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably
one really effective weapon--laughter. Power,
Money, Persuasion, Supplication,
Persecution--these can lift at a colossal
humbug,--push it a little-- crowd it a
little--weaken it a little, century by century: but
only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a
blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing
can stand."
Mark Twain - The Chronicle of Young Satan, Mysterious
Stranger Manuscripts

"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands
explained." -Mark  Twain

"The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of
wonder."~Huston Smith

Harold

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