I made a mistake yesterday. I tried to engage in conversation...on social media. I'm not sure what possessed me. I know better. It might have been okay if this discussion had occurred in a group of people that actually know me, or me them. Social media is an awful place, inhabited by awful people. People whom were taught to have opinions, but never taught to not be opinionated. People whom were encouraged to disagree, but never shown how to not be disagreeable. Anonymity has removed the filter that helps maintain civil society. People have become...coarse.

Messaging

I have recently been thinking a great deal about the messages we give our children, both in thought and deed, on purpose and by accident. I think we have been giving them bad or at least partially formed messages, doing them no favors as they move from childhood into adulthood.

One such is, "Don't worry about it; you'll be fine if you just follow your heart..." That's a lovely sentiment, I suppose, but one should probably add, "...but be prepared to say 'do you want fries with that' a lot...".

Another is, "Don't worry about what other people think of you...". That's just really bad advice. Most of your life is predicated on what other people think of you. I'm not quite sure how to modify that one. Maybe, "Be aware what a person thinks of you and decide if that particular person's opinion is important".

I don't know. It's a fine line. I used to think this would be so much easier if there were a guide book or something. Then I found some of those guide books and, as it turns out, they don't know either.

Oh yeah, I DID have a blog...

Once upon a time, I started a blog because someone said, "Hey, you should start a blog", so I did (start a blog). This is the blog I started, once upon a time... I leave it to you, the probably non-existent reader, to decide if it is really a blog if I add to it only every 8 years.