When I was in junior high school, I remember writing letters to friends. Yes, actually writing letters using a pen on real paper and mailing it in an envelope with a stamp. Imagine that. Today, writing letters for any reason has become fossilized, almost useless, if you will. In its place, we now have e-mails, text messages, instant messages, twittering and what-have-you to let others know what’s going on in our lives.

Don’t get me wrong. I will be the first to admit that I’m a lover of technology. I’ll take a computer over a manual typewriter any day, hands down. However, I believe we’ve come to a point in society where we’ve taken too much of our communication to cyberspace versus talking over the phone or (God forbid) face to face. I think texting and all that is beneficial when you need to let someone know you’re running late or ask what they want from the grocery store. But are we taking it too far when we have serious conversations over text or worse yet, get into verbal altercations over the web?

I’ve heard of stories where people are using the social utility forum, Facebook, to air their grievances over some mundane issue or where people “unfriend” one another due to political differences. Basically, someone doesn’t like what someone else is writing or gets offended because of its content. I think what we all need to realize is that often times what we put into cyberspace is not meant to offend, but merely our own opinion about a certain subject.

I will be the first to admit that in no way do I ever mean to offend anyone. Take my blogs, for example. Tom is my “editor-in-chief.” Occasionally, he’s been concerned that I may offend some people with something I’m writing, especially given the wide array of our readers. Believe me when I say there’s been more than one blog that’s been edited more than once. We get weekly stat reports that show the traffic on our website. I’m more than well aware that since the inception of our site two years ago, 37 countries have visited our website, of which over half regularly visit our blog. That’s a lot of potential people that may disagree with what I have to say. But please understand that these are merely my opinions and not meant to offend anyone. Forgive me if I’m not always politically correct.

I realize there occasionally may be content that doesn’t sit well with some people. For example, I don’t like grilled boneless, skinless chicken breast. There, I’ve said it. A chef I know once said that he’d rather eat Styrofoam than boneless, skinless chicken breast. While I may not take my chicken sentiment to that extreme, I’m not far from it either. One of the worse things you can do to me is make me eat dry chicken and serve it with mushy vegetables. (This is where I apologize to all you grilled chicken lovers). I’m sorry.

At the end of the day, I need to be who I am and be true to my opinions and culinary taste buds. Although my blog highlights some of those opinions, it’s never meant to offend. Having said that, I still won’t eat dry chicken breast.