Social Media’s sour taste

Social media has left a sour taste in my mouth of late.

When I was younger, I had convinced myself that I had friends in my life that I mattered to.  I was also in a relationship where I  thought I was married to my best friend.  Upon closer examination, I’ve come to realize that there aren’t really that many people who really know me, or to whom I really matter.

This is not any sort of indictment against anyone who believes that they are my friend.  This is mostly an observation on what qualitifes as “friendship” these days.

How well do you think you know your “friends”? I’m not talking about your nominal social-media “friends”.  I’m talking about people who you categorize as “friends”, regarldess of some social media application

Are these people ones you would reach out to if you hadn’t heard from them in a while?  Are these people who you will miss if they suddenly passed from this world?  Are these people who you would find yourself regretting some lost opportunity to communicate with if they suddenly disappeared from this world?

I recently conducted an experiment on social media where neither “ friends” (with whom you have stayed in contact with me in one way or another for the last thirty-eight years), nor my progeny noticed that I had dropped off of Facebook for a week.  No one batted an eye.  

It is somewhat sobering and disconcerting, how little I matter to anyone.  If I fell off the face of the planet, the only souls who would take notice would be my cats.  My professional colleagues might catch on in a few days; worse case scenario, they’d notice within a week.  My other social and familial connections would probably take the better part of a motnh to realize that I’d vaporized, best case scenario.

While I try not to measure my own worth based on how other people assess me, the previous paragraph does give me pause.  

I suppose that it doesn’t really matter what my death would be to anyone show survived me.  After all, I won’t be around to take note.  On the other hand, trying to infer or gauge one’s value based on how your death might impact them, is an interesting philosophical exercise.

As far as I can tell,  my presence, or lack-there-of, doesn’t really matter to anyone.  This is probably my own fault.  After all, I was married for twenty years but decided that it was better to be alone than to be in a relationship with a stranger, who did not treat me with respect. Of course, I had cultivated that relationship while not cultivating others, which left me pretty isolated when all was said and done.  The fall out being that my post-divorce support system was pretty shallow.

Since the divorce, I have tried to cultivate new friendships and relationships.  Unfortunately, I think that I’ve lost the ability to trust anyone enough to allow tham “in”.  I don’t trust people enough to get close to new people.  And, experience has taught me that I can’t really rely on the people who’ve been in my life for decades.

Therefore, when I am feeling particularly isolated or undervalued, there’s no one who I can rely on to help shore up the shakey edges.

C’est lat vie.  Ultimately, I think that the vast majority of us are navigating this experience by ourselves, including the majority of so-called married people that I know.

I wish you all a better assessment of the human experience than what I have had...

Striving Toward the Light

Please don't take every article at you see shared on social media at face value.  There's enough current and real news to get angry about.

If you are my friend on Facebook, I respect your intelligence.  For the most part, none of my Friends will share a possibly inflammatory link without looking for conformation from another source with which they have a history of respecting their journalistic integrity (even if seeing it through their own world view glasses).  As is natural though, every one of us sometimes lets a single headline carry us away.

That said, there is also a lot of good in the world.  I've been trying to focus on that light as much as possible.  As someone who has a history with a lot of inner darkness, I need to be mindful of how much negativity I absorb as well as how much I exude.  I have dropped or unfollowed Facebook Friends when their feeds have turned primarily into Channels of Darkness.

Being politically aware and responsive is a good thing.  Do what you can to improve the world at large.  I do.  But also do what you can to improve the immediate world around you.  I am not just talking about sharing kitten videos on Facebook (though, I do so love those.). I'm talking about acting locally.

If the national or international political environment is causing your blood to boil, do add your voice where it is needed.  But also channel your energy to where it will have a positive impact that you can see and feel yourself.  Volunteer your time or treasure to local causes that help others in your community.  

There is too much hate and anger and sadness in the world.  While sometimes unavoidable, giving into that path is typically destructive.  For my part, I (mostly) want to contribute to the light, to the creative forces in the world.  

 

Memorial Day

This holiday was meant to acknowledge those who have given their lives in service to our country.  I give a nod to those who made the great sacrifice.

It is also a day for remembering those who we have lost for other reasons. In that vein, I think of my mother.  Jack, my step father.  My grandmother, Jack's mother.  My father as well.

Why is it that we don't appreciate our family members until they are no longer part of our lives?

I strongly suspect that K will experience that regret when I am gone.  There's nothing I can do to prevent that.  I've tried everything to reach out to him.  I don't think that anything else that I could do will make a difference.

Treading water for a while

I have continued my break from the grief prompts.  I didn't like the dark places I found myself in as a result of the intensity of every day focus on the topic.  I hope to do at least one or two this weekend.  I have a lot going on then, so hopefully those activities can help me bounce back from any ill effects.

The color of memory

Red is the color of my true love's ...   No.  This is not a poem.  This is not about romantic love.  This is about maternal love.  Imperfect though that may be, since mothers are only human beings.   Memory is also imperfect too.  But I want to remember.  What do I remember? Red.  The color of your eyes in the hundreds of pictures I took of you as a child, since the flash always made your light eyes show up red. White. The color of your bathing trunks when you learned to swim at the YMCA pool.  Your dad and I took turns taking you.  I took pictures of your skinny little body as you laughed, getting out of the pool. Blue.  The color of your eyes, at least after you'd been awake for a while.  When you would first wake up your eyes were a very washed out gray. Orange.  Purple.  Green.  All colors you liked when they they were bright and attention getting. Orange was also the color of basketballs.  I can't see one without thinking of you.  You loved playing basketball.  We even got you a freestanding hoop when we lived in Bedford.  How many practices and games did we take you to?  How many camps? Purple was also the color of the the silly silky cylinder pillow that your grandmother got for you.  I took a silly picture of you with it on your head. Brown was the color of your hat when you worked at the steak house, as well as the color of the first hoodie that you wore to death. Red is the color of anger, right?  But I'm only angry when I get frustrated with the situation, with not understanding why you've dropped a wall between us.  A wall like a guillotine, chopping my heart in half.  Red is the color of blood.  The blood that we share.  The blood that I feel like I should be bleeding in gallons so that the world can see the pain that otherwise leaves no visible mark on me. Black is the color of words on a screen, in emails and texts that you do no answer; in cards and letters that I don't know if you've read.  The color of a powered down computer monitor or television.  How many of those in our lives and relationships? Black is the color of desolation.

Out of whole cloth

While I know that my situation with my son, K, is not unique, I've never really KNOWN someone who has gone through an estrangement.  An acquaintance once shared her experience around her estranged daughter to try to make me feel less alone in my grief.  It did help somewhat.  Another friend introduced me to someone who was going through something similar.  Again, hearing her story helped a bit as well.  However, in neither case did I know these people early on in their situations.   I would love to have a role model on how to best survive my feelings of frustration, guilt, and loss.  Perhaps I can invent someone to admire.  That someone could be based roughly on me, but perhaps my "better self".  Her name is Ellen. Ellen never shied away from the topic of children.  She enjoyed hearing stories about other people's offspring.  When asked if she had children, she would briefly mention her daughter; but she would beg off talking about her unless she knew you well.  You always knew when Ellen considered you a friend, because she would talk about her daughter with you.  She would tell you that she and her daughter stopped speaking years ago, that she missed her daughter every day but that it no longer hurt her deeply to think about her.  While she did not understand why her daughter cut all ties with her, Ellen was proud of the adult her daughter had become.  And, even if her daughter refused to communicate with her, Ellen knew that her good parenting contributed greatly to the creation of the smart and independent adult her daughter had become.  She still hopes that one day her daughter will reach out to her, that they can again be part of each other's lives.  Until then, she treasures her memories of the seedling she nurtured and imagines how gloriously it has blossomed. Ellen is made of stronger stuff than me.  Someday, I hope to be like her.

The break I just took

One of the reasons that I started writing this blog was because I signed up for 30 day writers workshop called "Writing Your Grief".  While I'm not explicitly spelling out the daily prompts, you can probably get an idea of what the course involves.  Some of the written explorations can be pretty painful to dredge up when you're hurting.  So, after several days of wallowing in feelings that I've been trying to avoid, I went into self-protection mode and stayed away from the whole thing for a few days.  I'm not sure if I'll do all of the intervening prompts, but I do plan to try to catch up in the next couple of days.

Wish me luck!