:eek: * backs slowly out of thread.
…wrong. The thrust of the thread is that there is a “time and a place” to express certain opinions.
[QUOTE=JillGat]
One final post on the SDMB. My message about Opal was innocent. Some of you here actively gossiped about and insulted Opal while she was alive and cruelly mocked her struggles with mental illness. And now these same people are sanctimoniously piling on and attacking me for saying that I’m sorry she didn’t get a chance to document, illustrate and discuss her final life chapter. The hypocracy is astonishing. I have been here as a moderator, a staff report contributor and a poster for about 14 years. I am now finally completely disgusted by this out-of-touch “community.”
[/QUOTE]
I have never ever said a bad word about OpalCat. I haven’t even posted in the memoriam thread. I’ve never gossiped, or said anything behind her back. I’ve never been cruel to her, in fact I don’t even think I’ve ever communicated to her in her time here.
I’m calling you out: who in this thread are you talking about? Where is this hypocracy? The only person out of touch in this thread is you.
For what it’s worth, I was not offended by the posts in the original thread (or in this one). And I am aware of many of “the terrible things she said about her own mother.” Katherine and her Internet alter ego OpalCat had her own perspective on life and people and situations which sometimes bore no relationship to reality and other times were more insightful and prescient than anyone could imagine. She was a complicated person who experienced life with gusto. As I have written in other posts, we do not believe that she intentionally took her own life. I certainly can understand one poster’s thought that had she done so, she might have preceded that with some online discussion or pictures or something else. That would have bothered me, but that was the kind of thing she very well might have done, and it is not inappropriate to acknowledge that.
The degree to which she made her personal life public was often embarrassing to her family, but it was part of her bipolar disorder, and her bipolar disorder was part of her. She painted her magnus opus, Being Art, to put on canvas what bipolar disorder felt like to her. She enjoyed her widespread presence in social media. She had a big and giving heart and loved to help people. She didn’t mind being controversial, and while I don’t think she was ever a troll, she didn’t mind putting controversial or provocative statements out there. She knew she sometimes pissed people off (IRL as well as online). That was just part of the debris from the creative whirlwind she was.
For whatever my 2 cents may be worth, I think she would LOVE all of these posts and discussions on the SDMB. I think she would be touched by the outpouring and reminiscences. I think she would be glad that her death had brought lurkers, fallers away, and old friends back to make note of the fact that she had been here and made an imprint on her world. To the people planning a wake in the DC area, I think she would be very pleased and wish she could be there with you or that the whole thing would be on a webcam. She had panache, and she liked to be noticed.
She mattered to more people than she realized, and given my own faith, I personally believe that she is in position to realize how truly loved she was by her family and how appreciated she was by a wide variety of people who knew her in any capacity. She has made a mark on the Internet, in her art, and more personally (and importantly to me) in Dominic, her greatest creation of all, whom I have called since birth “my favorite boy who has ever lived in the whole history of the world.”
I don’t want anyone to post a link to whatever nude pictures people mentioned, but other than that, I know that Katherine was free with her criticism and wouldn’t object to people saying whatever they honestly felt here.
Very well said.
**OpalCat **died???
ETA: found the MPSIMS thread. sniffle
My condolences on your loss, OpalCat’s Mom.
Regards,
Shodan
Making this disagreement personal is really neither promoting the discussion nor honoring Opal.
I doubt that this discussion can be conducted without heat, but I think it would be a good idea for everyone to back away from personal comments in this thread.
[ /Moderating ]
OpalCats Mum- thank you.
She was a friend to a lot of people here, at the same time she could be irritating the same people.
She was Opal Cat. I will miss her, even though she would never have counted me as being one of her friends.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Opal Cat’s mom. Though I didn’t get a chance to know Opal Cat better… and now I wish I had the chance after lurking at her resume, art work…she was SO TALENTED! Anyone who passes and has been a part of the juggling world…well, we see it like losing a member of our family. I joined this group just so I could post as she touched many people with her smile and vivacious personality. I know she will be missed by many people. More people I’m sure wish they had her free spirit.