Frank Zappa Was Right

I made a promise to myself to stay out of the political commenting fray of Facebook a little over 2 weeks ago.  While I have felt better and my blood pressure has stabilized, that doesn't mean it hasn't been difficult. I am a creature of habit and passion. As time (and the current state of national and international affairs) has become the "enemy", I find my inner soul clinging to the Dylan Thomas poem; "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night". However, when it comes time to rage against the dying of the light, I'm literally screaming silently into the ether. Okay, sometimes not so silently.

You see, the social media branch of the place of faces has this little feature that lets you know when friends of yours have commented on some page that you are not necessarily familiar with.  And if you're very new to curbing your opinion, it allows you to click your way into that unfamiliar page, see what your friend posted, and see what others have posted.  DAMMIT! So, while I have been a very good girl about not posting political stuff on my own page, I have not been so successful with curtailing the Nosey Nellie inside me and letting that recently repressed social activist wave her flag. I suppose that's a form of cheating. But I hate cheaters, and even though we've learned in a very big way that cheaters DO prosper, I don't want to be associated with hypocrites or cheaters. So that needs to stop.

I can't do anything about other people posting things that I disagree with other than just scroll by. You say; "But Pua, you CAN unfriend them." Yes, that is true. I can and have done that. The problem with that however, is that sometimes those people are of the same opinion as you in most things, they just don't always check their facts. There was a time that I would, behind the scenes, gently and hopefully diplomatically remind them that the source or content of their meme or their shared post wasn't entirely fully factual, or up to date.  In my mind, that's no different than screaming about uranium sales, birth certificates, or Libyan cities on the Mediterranean Sea coast. If we stoop to that ploy and refuse to evolve, we're no different than they are. So there I sit; silently scrolling by, leaving no reactive "like," "love," "wow," "sad," or "angry" emoji, even if I know that politically we agree.

Which leads me to those friends/acquaintances who I love and care about with whom, politically and socially, I am unequally yoked. My simple solution has been to "snooze" them for 30 days. I have often wondered, while I'm snoozing them, if they've already blocked or unfriended me and I'm giving them way more grace than they have afforded me. Then I wonder why I care. Weird the way that plays out sometimes. I've laughed out loud at myself and thought; "Pua, you are some piece of work." I am, if nothing else, a living embodiment of dichotomous thinking. And so it goes.

I have recently done something I consider very, very brave. I have confirmed the friend requests of people who have been "waiting in the wings" that I KNOW for a fact are on the opposite political, cultural, social, and economic plane than myself. To be very clear, and very fair, it does not mean I don't like or admire these people. It's just that I know that politically, we don't agree. We have common goals and missions with regard to volunteerism, but I'm sure, had they seen some of my posts, they would have never requested being a FB friend. That's not conjecture. That's fact.

With having decided these weeks ago to stop posting political memes or getting into commentary, and having replaced those posts with "happy" shit (GAG - another thing that makes my skin crawl a bit...I don't care who you are, NO ONE is happy every single day), I figured it was "safe".  I'm calling it, for lack of a better term, a "distraction". It will serve a two-fold purpose; a) it will hopefully make me think twice before I have a knee jerk reaction to some uninformed untruth someone posts, and b) it will hopefully help me to concentrate more on action. It's one thing to be a keyboard warrior. It's another thing to put your money where your mouth is. I want to concentrate more on doing.

I have come to the conclusion that the face place and the birdie site are never going to change the minds of people. Minds have been and are already where they are destined to be. Those sites just anger the masses into a froth (I know because I've been frothy) and ruffle feathers (I know because I've had fluffy feathers). I have seen the miraculous changing of minds over intimate fireside chats with beers, blunts, and doses of  human kindness where the voice of the biblical hero entices; "Come, let us reason". Nothing is going to change because I post or comment on something I find abhorrently wrong or inhumane. I will in future, as my very wise and very mature children have modeled for me, STFU about it, and let others do what they will. After all, they're doing it better than me.  I'm going back to blogging (have you noticed?) If you really look at it, the most comments or reactions have come when I've posted about Kili or the kids. Which is why I don't have a personal InstaGram page...Kili does.  I'm going to keep it that way, because in the big picture, Zappa was right.