Hard looks across the Sherlockian web

We've always been aware that our grand Sherlockian society is not without a few clunkers.

One of the things I have always enjoyed about the social aspect of a hobby like Sherlockiana is the way it brings us together under a common interest and all else falls away. You meet new friends at a conference, you go out to dinner, you talk for hours about things you love, and often come away not knowing their job, their politics, their religion, their criminal record . . . . and you just enjoy them for who they are as a Sherlockian. Even the doofuses.

In an information age, however, we're all becoming more Sherlock Holmes and less John Watson, taking in more data about pretty much everyone than ever before. In some cases, like a friend I just saw on Facebook cheering college loan forgiveness, you go, "I always knew they were an all right sort!" and just smile at their agreeable opinion. In other cases, like when you're talking to a friend whose company you've enjoyed and they start speaking positively about a political figure you despise, you kind of weigh the factors in your head, going, "Well, they're nice enough about most things, so maybe they're just misguided on this one thing." And if it's just an opinion, not an action, you might let it slide.

And then there are the really bothersome ones, as when Paul Thomas Miller started calling out MX Publishing on Twitter this week after doing just a little internet digging. Between an editor's online choices of showing us who they are and the questionable work of a particular charity, there were some pretty ugly ideologies being exposed. The kind of ugly that you just don't want to associate with your happy place, especially if you got a little ego-boost from being published in a collection associated with folks involved in those ideologies at some point. It's can be hard to look at. But . . .

A personal hobby is always full of personal choices. Headcanon, what books fill our shelves, who we like to have dinner with -- the Sherlockian world isn't exactly the same place for any two of us. And as much as we like to round upwards and go "Sherlockians are just the best people!" occasionally some of them aren't. Choices get made. Sometimes we're the one making the choice, and sometimes we're the one someone else is making a choice about. But choices, inevitably, get made, for as the old song says, "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." (Not the biggest Rush fan, but I've chosen of few of those as friends over the years.)

When you look and see someone repeatedly choosing hate over love, exclusion over inclusion, or general assholery, you get to make choices. We all get to make those choices. And while I'm not going to preach on what choices you should make, feeling that your happy place is also a good place, and you choose for it to be a good place, well, I might leave that as a suggestion for optimal results in a hobby. Our time is limited.

So, good luck out there. I hope you get optimal results from Sherlockiana or Holmesiana, whatever you choose to call this thing.