Good Morning My Confidants
It's been a weird morning. Not bad. Just ... Different. I'm not angry, nor overjoyed, nor depressed, nor giggly.... I'm just...... Just.......
I just am....
The front door is open and it's just a tad chilly, but that type of chili that just recently I've been enjoying. Because I can control it if I get too chilly for one thing. For another, it makes me feel so alive. I can hear the bird song. Both dogs are cuddled around me. And everything is just.. calm.
And in this state I am in this morning, I am noticing something about social media, something that I've noticed a lot in the last year so, but especially so this morning.
People are messed up. Me included.
People are hurt and angry and accusatory. And they may have every reason to be. I'm not the judge of that.
(Took me a long time to figure that out! LOL!)
People are especially easy to trigger right now. And more than ready to jump all over people that they feel are triggering them. To get angry. To SCREAM that you should feel exactly the way they do, and if you don't, then you are a piece of shit.
And I just don't know what to say about that. I mean I could probably go on for pages about this actually, but this morning. and in this sort of calm state, I feel different....
I could get all lecture-ie about how we choose to be offended and that we don't have to get involved with that energy.... But, no.... I am not going there. I've been easily offended before in my own life after all. Who am I to tell somebody that they "shouldn't" be offended? That they shouldn't be triggered? And who am I to tell these people that they certainly shouldn't be lecturing "me" about whatever is very much on their minds? Who am I to do that?
I do find that I'm "unfollowing" quite a few people these days. Their energy isn't helping me right now, but I don't want to unfriend them, they need to vent or whatever....but that venting (or whatever) is not doing me any good whatsoever. So, since I have far from mastered simply "scrolling on by," unfollowing seems the right way to go for me. I find that a little sad. But you know, they're getting along just fine with me. They don't need my opinion. They haven't even noticed that I've "done away." Yup! The Earth turns on its axis, just fine without me, and thank you very much.
And how often when we are posting about something--something that hurts us, or angers us, or we are accusing the world of the crappy things it does--do we really want an opinion? Unless they're agreeing with us 100%?
I've seen posts this morning that were very, very emotional. One about how you don't have to forgive people that have done you wrong. I've seen at least one angry post about the fact that someone was telling them what they could and could not post about. I've seen a post judging someone about something they did 30 plus years ago in a very different world than we're living in today and judging that person by today's standards. I've seen a few anti-either-side-of-a-political issue, a few of which almost engaged me emotionally, and thank God I didn't "go there " I've seen quite a few of those posts that annoy me more than almost any other kind of post, and that's when the poster only supplies a fraction of any kind of real information so that I can even understand what the hell the post is about--and the poster obviously thinks I should know or that at the very least that I'm telepathic and therefor privy to the information that is only in their minds.
And all of them made me want to respond with my opinion, to leave a comment, and on a couple of them I did, while at the same time I was asking myself why I was doing it. Why was I bothering? Did the person give a shit about my opinion?
I sometimes wonder why I waste myself on Facebook at all....
Except that so often I see beautiful posts.
I see posts about a new kitten. Posts of excitement over a new job. Gleeful reviews about a new movie that they've seen and they want to talk about it and the post makes me want to go see it. I see posts simply about how someone is feeling that day and I want to give them a high five or a hug, depending.
I saw a wonderful post reminding me of what really matters to me. I saw another post reminding me not to be offended! LOL!! So ironic!
I saw an update on someone's health that has been poor and how they are now so much better! I saw a post from anther Facebook friend revealing that in their recent checkup there was no longer any signs of cancer.
Yesterday I saw a video post that made me joyfully teary about a little dog that wandered into a Family Dollar and was running around desperate, and this guy who had just stopped in to pick up a few things saw this dog and picked it up and the dog immediately started loving on him. The store called Animal Control, who could not come and pick the dog up that day, and asked if the man if he would care for the dog until the next day. He did. But when he got home with the dog, it climbed up into his lap, and then rested its head up under the man's chin and went to sleep. He knew that he wanted the dog. When Animal Control showed up he didn't want to give the dog up and I wasn't sure I understood why he had to. Something legal, I'm sure. But on the same day over a hundred dogs were brought in and "his" dog got sort of lost in the system and it was at least a month before he could adopt the dog. He was able to visit the puppy nearly every day, and then he was quite shocked on the day that they told him he could take the dog home. It was accompanied with a video that just made me, as I said, shed joyful tears.
And that's not even mentioning those wonderful coffee memes or photos of some hot barely dressed man! LOL!
Oh! And Reels! I love Reels! They make me so happy!
If I stopped reading social media, I would miss out on all of this.
And that I'm just not prepared to do.
So, there we go. My ramblings for today.
There is good and bad and almost everything, in dualistic thinking for sure, and I have a choice. I have a choice where I'm going to invest my energy. And more and more and more, as I practice, I'm learning where to invest that energy and where not to. Mostly it is a waste of my time to give my opinion to anyone who was not specifically requesting it.
But it is not a waste of time for me to see a puppy joyfully adopted and find a new home.
Today I promise myself to use the "unfollow" button. At least once.
And the Heart button as well!
Today I practice investing my energy only in constructive ways for my well-being.
Today I practice not investing my energy in any way that will cause me harm.
There's enough people in the world trying to harm me without me jumping on the bandwagon.
Where are you going to invest your energy today?
Namasté,
BG "Gentle Ben" Thomas
I've unfollowed a lot of people as well. Like you, I don't want to unfriend them and cause hurt feelings. Interestingly, two people I unfollowed grew up, got sane and I started following them again. I mostly discovered they had grown up a bit by the comments they left on others' posts. A couple of rare changes, but it can occasionally get better!
It must be,a phase of the moon!!🤣 There is some no pleasing some people. We can do only what we can do...so smile and go on!!😁
A lot of people are frustrated with the current economy/society, are dealing with their own traumas, and are being made more and more fearful by the religious and political "leaders" they follow. They do not like feeling frustrated or fearful so they turn their emotions to anger. Anger makes them feel powerful, just as it makes you feel powerful when you argue with their posts.
I have trained myself to pity them because they are so emotionally "hangry." I have trained myself to send them love because they need it the most. Well, at least most of the time. ;-)
I don't feel like most negative commentators on Facebook are open to any thoughts different from their own. They just like to scream at people and things they hate from a safe position that frees them from consequences. I don't keep those people. I absorb the emotions of other people too easily, and all the hate makes me sad and depressed and scared. I decided nothing gets fixed on Facebook, and I need all the happy I can surround myself with to stay on an even keel. So if one shows up, it's gone immediately. I try to find positive ways to make changes, like working with groups like Vote Forward to encourage people who usually don't vote to get…