Good luck... you'll *need* it.

[Ivan A Derzhanski <cbmvax!uunet!cogsci.ed.ac.uk!iad>]

O Lojbab,

I understand your feelings, but I don't share them.  I realise that,
as current head of state of Lojbanistan, you are seriously concerned
about getting a greater number of people involved in the Effort, and
you are not pleased to see would-be Lojbanists leave.

But I, as an ordinary lojbo se bangu, care much more for the quality
than for the quantity of the community.  Far be it from me to say that
I would want Lojbanistan to be some kind of exclusive if not secret
society, but it is not an asylum either.  Especially at this early
stage, when so many things still remain to be fixed, what the language
needs is people willing to create, driven by nothing but enthusiasm.
Enthusiasm which they must have discovered in themselves on their own.
Those who have been simply recruited, dragged into the Effort, can be
more of a destructive than of a constructive force.

Besides, I want my fellow Lojbanists to be decent people, people whom
I could call friends.  This is not to say that I require everyone to
appreciate this activity of ours (recall that I count Scott Horne as
my best friend).  But when you try something and find out that it is
not what you want, or when you just discover that your preferences
have changed, you should have the dignity to simply say "Farewell" and
close the door quietly.  This applies to women, wine, card games, and,
yes, planned languages, of which there is such a variety nowadays.

But someone appearing to the Lojban List cursing the language for
things we are aware of but don't count as real flaws, yelling about
his Esperanto achievements which we don't care about, and - ***! -
asking where he can get a green star?!  Verily I tell unto you,
Lojbab, while I was reading his letter, I had but one thought - "What
if this creature had stayed in the Effort?!" - and I was scared by it.

In fact, I feel somewhat sorry for him: he has wasted so much time
only to discover that Lojban is not what he has been looking for.
>From what he says about the reasons for which he likes Esperanto, it
is clear that this has been the case from the very beginning.  Lojban
is not an easy language.  It is cryptic, it is bizarre at times, and I
wouldn't attempt to write a single paragraph without my word lists.
But it gives me a satisfaction which I can never get from Esperanto,
although I understand 98% of the text on SCE (and know that `six' is
"ses", not "sest" as he appears to think) without ever having taken a
single lesson in it.  I just count it as one of the 23 languages which
I have spoken or written.

Good riddance (.ionaico'o) to the rats leaving the ship.  To the real
ones, just keep it up.  We're as lucky as we want to be.

Ivan