I was thinking...

One of the greatest secrets about social media is this: you don't have to care. There are plenty of people who post things which are, at best, divisive. There are plenty of news organizations which will sensationalize any and everything to get your attention. There's a slew of spam spreading misinformation, using colorful language to draw the eye from boring details like legitimate references . Some of what is posted is true, some of it isn't.  Is all of this painfully obvious enough? It should be, if you've been using social media for more than 72 hours. When you see something on your news feed which conflicts with your views, then why would you let it own you? Why allow it to creep into your emotions, spreading like ink spilled into a water-balloon? Remember, always, that you don't have to care. With the droves of issues surrounding your immediate community, possibly even in your own family, why pay so much attention to everything over which you ...

I know I'm certainly at fault for doing this: you're around a group of people and you all start talking and sharing life experiences. Then, the conversation slowly eases into a competition of who has transgressed the most against the common moral standards of the entire group. This is not a terrible thing. If you consider that someone who has lived through various experiences knows the pitfalls of certain behavior, then this person's anecdotes of worldly dealings can help the group, at large, agree that damaging behavior has too many drawbacks. However, there are those who try to one-up everyone, wearing their "sins" like badges, as though that gives them the edge over everyone else in the group. This is where the two camps, regardless of moral standards, begin to fork on the conversational path. The people who have actually learned from damaging behavior and have become wise through those experiences tend to be quiet and reflective. Those who believe their acti...

Love is a broad concept. Don't get me wrong, it's great to know that there are couples in our nation who can finally get a marriage license and qualify for the financial benefits of marriage. And I don't question the validity or sincerity of the feelings of each couple who enters the bonds of marriage. However, calling attention to a single, relatively minor issue and claiming that "Love wins" is not only untrue, but intensely insensitive. If love truly had won, then where are the children and teachers who were gunned down by the neglected mentally-ill, with uninhibited access to firearms? Where are black young men and police officers who have paid the ultimate price because of racial bias and unfair retaliation? Where is the peace between religious sects, their opponents and their dissenters? Where are the fair wages for those who need them and those who work hard enough to earn them? Where is the financial equality for women, and where is t...

There is an ancient saying from the Mediterranean area, with which you're already familiar: "Know thyself." Identity. Who knows? If there's ever a reason for anything, it's to find a sense of identity. Think about culture, race, religion, family, friends, etc. You'll find all of these things give us a little clue about who we are as individuals. It's not an easy journey to discover one's self, though. Conor Oberst put eloquently what it is to get lost in the search: So I have been hanging out down by the trains depot.  No, I don't ride. I just sit and watch the people there.  And they remind me of wind-up cars in motion. The way they spin and turn and jockey for positions. And I want to scream out that it all is nonsense. All your lives one track, can't you see it's pointless? But then, my knees give under me.  My head feels weak and suddenly  it's clear to see that it's not them but me,  who has...

Why are there translations on the internet of what people say to what they actually mean? I'll tell you why: there are actual living humans who manipulate everyone in their lives.  These same people are so terrified of the truth that speaking outright truth hasn't ever  crossed their minds. From the birth of a thought, they carefully swaddle it with lavish avoidance before presenting it to the world. Who knows why? Chances are these people have been conditioned by their immediate community to do so because outright honesty is often considered a faux pas in "civilized" society, its citizens quickly having learned to circumnavigate the truth. The greatest irony of this tactic is that it was adopted to spare others' feelings. At one point or another, these people decided that complete honesty wasn't polite, so they came up with methods to skirt around every issue until all communication seemed to be totally polite, but is actuall...