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At your urging, I read it. I knew nothing of this event in 2007. I have no interest in reading about people having terrible mental breakdowns when their love
by mikekchar 7y ago
At your urging, I read it. I knew nothing of this event in 2007. I have no interest in reading about people having terrible mental breakdowns when their love life spirals out of control. Why would you want to pry into this person's life? Because they were once famous? Is it really your business to have an opinion one way or another? Was this ever really news to begin with? Just because the person in question was once famous?
Maybe I'm being too hard. I've been the subject of the rumour mill before. At one point I was virtually the only foreign person that lived in the small town in Japan where I taught English (there are hundreds now -- really hard to believe). Every step I took was seen by someone. If I went out on a date, it was common knowledge to people I'd never even met. If I broke up with someone, there were people debating whose fault it was. They had never spoken a word to me in their life.
I'm pretty easy going and I know people are going to be people. They are going to talk about stuff. I get it. But, seriously: why are you urging people to read this? Why does it need to be dredged up again? So that people can get a better view? So that they can have empathy -- with a person they have never met? A person that they will almost certainly never meet?
I mean it's one thing if the person themselves had written a story about it and encouraged people to read it. Or even collaborated with the author. Or even responded to questions from the author. I get absolutely no impression that this person wants people to revisit this episode of their life. Why are you making that decision for them? Why do you suppose it is your right? Because they were once famous? Because you knew their name and decided that you wanted to know more?
I'm sorry to be so hard here, but if you want to be empathetic, just remember that a person's life is the only thing they've really got. If you make a terrible, terrible mistake in public, it's not going to be erased, but you can make their life a lot easier: just forget about it.
- jsjohnst 7y agoSeriously thank you for writing this. It’s my thoughts entirely, but way better said than I could’ve, with a personal anecdote that is easier to follow than the one I would’ve used.
- an_d_rew 7y agoAnd I will add my thanks, too... your comment, @mikekchar, is much appreciated!
- darkerside 7y agoI think you make some good points, and they'd be more appropriate if I were encouraging people to contact this person. I'm not. I found a sense of how my personal perspective had changed over the past 10 years. And for the record, the article is more focused on what this meant in the context of a dying space shuttle program, not just "probably into someone's love life". From reading the article, I think I understand better how NASA came to be, and even how the world's collective sense of risk has continued to shift over the past decade. Anyway, read it or don't. I just think it's worth more than a jab at the headline.
- b_f 7y agoI'm guessing this is back in the public focus per the upcoming movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQP-L2pJzmk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQP-L2pJzmk
- fastball 7y agoYou don't think there is a bit of a difference between you just going about your daily life in a foreign country and that being interesting to people (and uncomfortable for you) and an astronaut committing multiple felonies?