Survey results: Oh MY!

Wow. There are a lot of quiet people in this space.

Thank you so much for taking me seriously enough to respond. Writing my survey and receiving your responses was enormously fun. It put me back in the rush of that first-time-writer feeling.

I created the questions, hit publish Sunday night before going to bed, and waited to see if a few people would oblige me. Within an hour, I got an email from SurveyMonkey. “Congratulations! You’ve just received your first survey response!” So I logged in to look. There appeared to be 44 responses. Well, that can’t be right, I thought. But it was. And I started grinning as I read your words. Forty-four little windows had opened in my space, and I could see you and know you were listening, and real.

The next morning, I had another email from SurveyMonkey. “Maximum Response Limit: You’ve reached your limit of 100 survey responses. To see all 191 responses, upgrade your plan today.” They are smart, those old codgers.

By that evening, there were 314. I upgraded.

Don’t you get squeamish on me about numbers now, because yours mattered. Thank you.

On the positive side, because of the upgrade I get to write another survey at any time in the next month, on any topic I choose (and it’s going to be a doozy) (even though I don’t know in what way specifically).

Now I am going to close the survey before I lose my mind. Wasn’t that fun? Final count is 437 responses, more input than I ever expected, or received with another post.

From this I must deduce one of three things:

1. You are painfully shy, or
2. You adore surveys, or
3. I need to adopt my patronizing tone a LOT more often.

If you’d like to see graph results of the multiple choice questions, click here to view a summary. Of course, I will not be sharing the individual comments. But I will be thinking them over for some time. In fact, it is difficult to stop thinking them over. In fact, last night I sat reading them until my head spun and I felt overwhelmed and cornered, and then suddenly I hit one that tipped me into hysterical giggles, and I was free again and could go to bed.

Relax – it is statistically unlikely to be yours.

Or do you want it to be?

Okay. Several observations.

Demographics

No big surprises in terms of your location, your age, and how long you’ve been reading. Interesting stuff, though!

Themes

I was pleasantly surprised to find that apparently, a variety of topics is working for us. You gave me a nice spread of interest, and the “Other” category leaned heavily toward two topics I forgot to put on the list of options: Marriage and Books. My marriage was kind of squeaky at the moment, so writing about it wasn’t on my radar. I will need to get better at it so I have something to share.

Public commenting

Well well well. How many creative reasons we have for not sharing our thoughts aloud! I see that a big part of my job going forward is to convince the human race that its words matter, and should be shared when possible.

I’m relieved to find that disorientation, disappointment, and disagreement play a comparatively tiny role – though to those who feel them, I am very sorry. I would change this if I could.

Technical difficulties I do understand – usually your filter, not my end – and vulnerability I am sympathetic to – to a point – although I will be savage enough to note that you enjoy experiencing it in other people. But plain down inertia? Come now. You have beautiful things to say. Wasn’t it fun to add them in?

In short, you have a place here. It’s a public forum. I welcome (that is, accept with pleasure/ await/ enjoy/ anticipate/ savor) all comments. I am delighted to hear from people both among and outside my usual readership: people who’ve never commented, strangers who haven’t introduced themselves, and anomalies by reason of faith, age, gender, skin color, experience, and location. I LOVE THIS. Jump right in. Novelty and surprise are some of my favorite things in the world.

Though I admit again that the comments closest to my heart come from my real life friends, who cannot comment too often.

So everybody please breathe. And say what you want to say.

Suggestions

Thank you for your supremely kind words and insights. I am taking them as seriously as I can.

You shared some great topics for future posts, which I’m excited to peruse and select from. I noted a stiff slant toward interest in reading more about relationships, especially difficult relationships, especially relationships between women, and I’m going to unpack that soon and ask you some questions.

I know I shouldn’t have favorite entries, but whoever coined the phrase “high end sarcasm” has my undying love.

And to a particular 14-year-old reader, who happens to live upstairs, hi son. Your response was the best.

Taking votes now for the survey that’s coming soon: Should we use it to examine church relationships, lady friendships, or marital bliss?