For those of you who may have missed it (and judging from the comments, you probably didn’t), our blog was host to its first dash of controversy yesterday (On CNN, Earth Day and Obesity ).
I think that any blog editor would tell you that controversy is a double-edged sword – and one that, for me, engendered a lot of reflection throughout the day (and night). It caused me to step back and think about what it is that we’re doing, and why.
I mentioned in a comment yesterday that we do what we do because we’re incredibly passionate about health. We know exactly how hard it is to make lifestyle changes – and as a result, our products are all geared to be so much fun, and so engaging, that you don’t even realize that you’re making a change. They’re positive and constructive. They’re empowering and they bring people together.
And it made me think about why we’re working so hard on this blog. One of the reasons is that we’re hungry to get people as engaged and passionate as we are about health. By that count, I guess I’d say that yesterday’s events were a success. Boy, were people ever engaged!
But the other thing that we want to do is to inspire people . . . not just to think nice thoughts, but to fuel a social revolution in health. To motivate people to deep thinking and to action. But as we attempted to inspire deep thinking about a serious social problem, we were also agitating.
I’ve known Tony Tomazic for four years. He’s my friend and I’m proud to say it. He’s not only one of the most intelligent and articulate people I know; he’s also among the most caring. And I can tell you that there was never, ever, any intent to be hurtful in that post.
Did we want people to challenge their thinking on obesity and its relationship to our society? Yes. Did we want to provoke real, sincere impassioned conversation on the subject? Yes. Did we want for everyone to agree? Nope. Constructive disagreement is the mother of revolutionary solutions.
But I know that we offended many of our readers yesterday – no matter how much we explained our intentions , beliefs and principles (which I’ll stand by to my grave).
When you’re offending, you can’t inspire. And we want to inspire. Sometimes you have to learn what you already know. And that’s what I learned yesterday.
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