Lesson of the Day

"Learn a lesson each day!"

"Keep growing, keep moving, keep achieving."

"Up and out, onward and upward!"

What is the lesson of the day that I will gladly share with you? Sit down, children, and I will tell you a little story.

After years of being taught that the world does not revolve around me, I heard that there is still a small majority who believe I am worthy of focus. Can you believe that? (Ah, but if it were only true, for real.)

While social media has brought us closer to long-lost or previously out-of-touch friends, and is an excellent avenue for advertising events and publicizing grand achievements (including photos to pretty it all up), it can be a greatly misunderstood mode of communication based primarily on assumption.

For example, did you know, that my FB updates during December and January were mostly targeted at my eldest daughter? Some in February were as well – and probably in March. She, like many young adults, has been navigating her own bumpy road and though she is legally of-age, she still needs her mom to remind her that this world is a better place because she lives in it.

She, and many others need to know too, that to continue wasting time on people who don’t believe she matters is indeed a WASTE of her time. Shocking truth? I have and will continue posting quotes to this affect, for the interpretation and perhaps benefit of someone who identifies with it.

Also another shocker: some quotes or status updates have nothing to do with anyone -- they just sound good! Just because I post a picture of my lilac bush that was cut down last season and is surprisingly springing back to life doesn’t mean I am claiming it is a new day and a re-birthing that is somehow symbolic of closing a door on the past and getting on to everything better and new. Nope. It literally had to do with the lilac sprouting after I thought I killed it.

Oh, and the “I love you” post last month was in direct response to the associated article, which had to do with Jimmy Freeman and his opinion of life risks and Micah True.

When I post that “I am happier today than I have been in months,” those who know me know I suffer with depression, which oftentimes is worse over the winter months. And gardening makes me happy.  It does NOT mean that any one person made me “unhappy” and I am sending some hidden message to a person who is probably not even my FB friend!

Moreover, not every post or blog or picture has to do with my relationships. My blog includes tidbits and details I have heard from various sources, and just because I write of heart break doesn’t mean that YOU Bob or YOU Jay or YOU Dude Whomever were the one who broke it. My children break my heart. Their boyfriends sometime break my heart. My neighbor breaks my heart when he wanders through his yard alone. My mother stomps on my heart. Failing to run a good race absolutely wrecks my heart! My “melodramatic” posts are not meant for calling one person out, or to render some exact judgment against one particular person.

Everything you find on the internet, including all I post, is open for interpretation. Many meanings can be taken, many levels are intended.

So get over yourself, people, it is the writer’s privilege to write simply for the love of writing.  For me it's mainly for the love of expressing in words what many people tend to avoid: emotion. Social media like Facebook has in my opinion dumbed-down our ability to feel emotions beyond “happy” or “angry.” It flattens every life experience into words of a sentence. We may feel like we have connected with Facebook, but come on, we have only grown farther apart. Calling someone on the phone is considered intrusive and way beyond friendship these days – it’s likened to stalking if a “gf” calls her “bf” more than once a day, if at all. Texting is THE avenue. Oh, so personal. (Then why do I have 1400 minutes when I text more than I call? Guilty as charged.)

Anyhow, my life has become so much less of an event these days. I am so sorry to disappoint my small audience to say this story isn’t really a story. I haven’t been in the middle of a ravaged love triangle, or been fighting off terrible life challenges, or taken on any great monumental races of mind-changing proportion. I haven’t gone the way of cheating in so long now, I am actually quite boring. If you would like to hear some really great gossip, though, I actually have heard WAY better stories around town than my sad little pitiful tales of loss. I will be glad to share, if you ask me directly. Otherwise, be careful what you assume. You know what happens when we ass-u-me.

So, yeah, this blog post is a bit of a circular rant. I take ownership of that.  I will however also give credit where credit is due.  If an accolade is attributable to you, I will name you, no guessing necessary.

Seriously, if you visit my blog to check and see if you are the “topic” of the day, then perhaps you have some guilt to explore. And that, my dear, is YOUR lesson of the day.