My children always complain when I put tomatoes into the soup. They studiously pick them out after they are ladled into their bowl. But I know that whether you relish them or not, soup just does not taste the same without tomatoes - and they complain that it is not as good if we leave them out! Soup is more than just the bits you like - it is the careful melding of flavors into something that is more than the sum of the whole. Some people don’t like it when you stir it up so that they get things in their bowl that they’d rather not know were in the soup though!

Life can be like that. We like our own view of things - the cozy familiarity that shuts out the bits we don’t like to acknowledge. We don’t like pot stirrers. They bring things to our attention that we’d really rather not have to deal with.

Bloggers can be great pot stirrers. Bringing things to light, holding them up to examination in new ways, exploring facets that the masses do not want to look at too closely.

The best pot stirrers are not sensationalists. There is a quality of dishonesty and self-deception about sensationalism. No, a good pot stirrer does not load a ladle with things that do not belong in soup - they just bring up a balance of things that are really there, and should be there.

So, as a blogger, never be ashamed to tell the truth, or to bring out a new perspective. But make sure the perspective is well thought out, truthful, and based in the reality of the world we live in - otherwise you become not a pot stirrer, but a fanatical wacko - people might listen to those temporarily, but they do not respect them, or remember them for long.