VARYING OPINIONS

I find it somewhat fascinating and perplexing that a discussion can easily erupt into an argument in no time what so ever. How this came about is that a collector I know through the world wide web sent me a group of photos of a chawan, a rather nice chawan that as the discussion came down to the kodai, I commented I thought it was a bit weak for the form and not as good as some of the potter's best kodai. This observation was not taken well and from there the emails turned in to something of a free for all from his end. I had learned a long time ago that getting in to such a heated discussion via email would never end well and decided not to enflame the situation. Eventually, things calmed down and relations returned to normal. This is certainly not the first time this has happened and I doubt it will be the last.

It would seem that in this age of anonymity and internet relationships that there are several caveats that need apply when discussing "stuff" or rather, at least this is how I see it. First off I think it is important for everyone to realize that just because this is my opinion, it doesn't make it right, it just happens to be how I see things based on the myriad of experiences that make me, me. Secondly the end game does not have to be unconditional agreement, we can agree to disagree and even at times be turned around based on another's viewpoint or "argument". Third and directly related to one and two, we are all entitled to our opinions without being branded heretical for them; in other words, if I have an opinion and flat out say that it is mine and just because of that fact it does not necessary make me right and the other side (the party of the second part) needs to make that same concession. Conceding to the fact that we all have varying opinion does not declare either party a winner or loser, just that we have agreed that we see things in a different light for any variety of reasons. I know this all sounds rather silly but in the time of depersonalized communication I think we all just need to respect each other's viewpoints and for goodness sake, can't we all just get along?

Illustrated is a captivating beishoukuji yohen chawan that in the end, we could both agree was quite nice.