Tag Archives: Facebook

Demanding Perfection, Being Imperfect and Social Media

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I spend a lot of time on the presentation of my blog. Too much time really. I fret over pictures and links. Fillers if you will. Worried that the content alone will not be enough. That what I have to say is not meaningful enough to stand on its own. It’s a lonely place to be when you want to put yourself out there in a meaningful way. Regardless of your chosen device when you bear your soul you have to be ready for someone to look at you and say. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

For me the urge to express is getting greater than the fear that causes me to hide. I think I am just coming to a place where I have to know if I am alone in the way I think. More than anything I long to know that I am not alone. As I look around in my day to day life I sometimes feel very alone. Family and friends aside. I am very connected to a loving family. I am very connected to great friends. It’s society and strangers I feel so disconnected from. Hence my next piece. A rant about how unsocial, social media is.

Unsocial Media
I have a Twitter account and a Facebook account. It is my understanding that these are there for us to connect with one another. That we can use these social networks to express our ideas and our lives to one another. Reach out and find our commonality. That is not what they are in reality.

In reality they are very unsocial. A place where if you don’t like someone’s opinion you can block them from existence. Were ideas are only allowed to be expressed if they are agreeable to the shaper of the original idea. New connections are mistrusted and if you reach out to people you are creepy. Debate is an expression of slander and hatred is the norm.

Now if you are a republican there are places you can go to be vitriolic about democrats and vise versa. You will be praised with likes for your witty cutting remarks about someone foolish enough to venture over the line and add another opinion.

While publicly you might think twice about explaining your next conspiracy theory you are free to do so on social media. Spreading second rate stories supposing to be news about how someone is trying to take over the world.

While this unfettered expression of ideas may seem to be the utopia of the 2nd Amendment it is nothing more than a juvenile playground for the uninformed to be more uninformed.

I long for true social media. Where opinions are appreciated and thought is required. Where you have to address the concerns of others that share a different view. A place that you can connect with like-minded as well and not-so-like-minded people. Ideas are like any raw material. It is only through heat and working can they truly grow into something great. No where in our society do we truly have that anymore. It is so desperately needed.

Moving On
So I will demand less perfection when it comes to my content and just try to be honest about my opinions and struggles in life. While I will always try to make my content readable and entertaining; I will not fret so hard over whether I have good pictures or the right links or font. I will instead do as I set out to do…

Be honest and look for an island of sanity in what seems to be an increasingly insane world.

Two Steps Back

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spirituality shelf

What’s on your spiritual book shelf?

One step forward…. then I fall down, bust my head, roll down a hill and forget where I was at in the first place.

 

That overstatement is an understatement of my beginning of this blog and my journey towards Buddhism. While professionally I am seeing a level of success I have not enjoyed in a while personally I am stumbling along in my spiritual path. Couple things…

 

I probably won’t be any less me any time soon. I am opinionated, sarcastic and, well, feisty. I eat life. Some of that is probably my type 1 bi-polar (Like being stuck in overdrive all the time unlike type 2 which is the mood swings) and the rest is just me. I am as my profile on Facebook says “Slightly Medicated” so I function better today. Never-the-less if you want to know what I think, you will get it. So if being Buddha means I must be monotone in my approach to life I don’t see it happening. Compassionate, loving, forgiving, aware, in the moment, acceptance and tolerance without judgement; all yes. Let’s just be clear to, acceptance and tolerance is not apathy or indifference. See “Other Stuff” for examples of that. There is right action and right thinking but without empathy even with the most vile of ourselves, we can never understand how to move past it.

 

My work. I work on the road. That is how I support my family so I have a routine but it changes locations a lot. So today I am in North Dakota brrrrr, tomorrow, well, you name it and it is possible. That is not an excuse for my lack of meditation or reading or blogging… there is another reason.

 

I have a lot of hobbies. I play bass, I play with my kids, I play with my wife ;) , I play with computers, I wish I read more; god knows I have bought enough books with that intention, and I am easily distracted by things like Facebook and Twitter. In fact truth is I spend too much time talking with friends and trying to be witty on those sites and it takes away from time here. I can’t blame it on my wife for calling me or my kids because while we do talk everyday they are respectful of my work and my time when I am away.

 

So is it discipline? Is it ADD? Willpower? I think not. I show incredible focus when I want to and discipline when I need to. Willpower is an illusion. You either are or you are not. Everything in between is what makes up a life. My problem is the same as everyone. Ego.

 

Everyone has a different spin on it. Worldliness, The Flesh, Materialism and so on. It’s all ego. That part of us that exists physically in this world. To be happy to feel good; to not be in pain. Sometimes we stuff our face or screw our brains out to get it. Other times we drug ourselves or buy crap. We keep the A/C at a palatable 72 degrees or sleep on a pillow-top. All this comes from our body’s need to not be in pain.

 

Now I’m no doctor and I am sure others will have their opinions but these desires are the animal part of us. I choose not to debate our physical origins but our consciousness however it came to be amplifies and overdrives these primal wants. So when I get on Facebook and play a game of questions with a friend and try to be witty and belong in that moment I am satisfying the self and ignoring the spirit. Does that mean I can’t every get on Facebook or connect with friends. NO!!! but there must be balance and I am not achieving that in a meaningful way. The fact that the 28 Day Meditation Challenge Started 8 days ago and I have done it for one day shows where I am really at. I am not making the spirit a priority in my life… but I am trying.

 

The journey is the reason for living so I choose today not to beat myself up but I am going to be honest. I feel good about the person I am today. I need to change where my priorities are at in my free time. I am loving the journey. I hope you are too.

 

Feel free to leave suggestions or comments about your struggles or successes with living out your spirituality. We are always stronger when we connect.