There ain’t no cure for the summertime blues.
I’m struggling to find anything to post about this week. I’m tempted to write another diatribe against the people who seem to have friended me on Facebook for the sole purpose of hating me. Seriously, if you don’t know me well enough to know that I pretty much represent everything you feel is wrong with the world (and harp on several times a day), why did you friend me? And if you do know me well enough to know that and still friended me anyway so you could bludgeon me repeatedly with your beliefs (all the while complaining that I force my beliefs on you), then shame on you.
I’m planning to start unfriending/muting some people in the near future.
In any case, my family and I are in the middle of a somewhat busy week. My boys, wife and I had cub scout camps last weekend, my daughter has a girls camp this week, and my older son has a scout camp this weekend I’ll be going to. There was also a cub scout pack meeting in there, a rather busy Sunday, car repairs, and a charity event coming up. I’m not complaining, just explaining. We got ourselves into all of it, so it would be silly to complain. But perhaps, knowing that, you’ll be patient if I don’t feel like posting as well. I’m too busy to have anything to talk about.
On the positive side, I’m making decent progress on my novel, and I’m getting ideas together for the next one. As I’ve decided that heavy outlining doesn’t work for me, I’m instead going to focus on heavy world-building this next time around, create a rather generalized outline, and write a semi-seat-of-the-pants draft and see how that goes. Of course I’ve still got to finish the novel I’m currently writing, and I’m probably only about half done at this point, so it’s not like I’ll be starting on a new novel any time soon. That may be a good thing, though, as I’ll have more time to work on my worldbuilding for the next and letting it stew a bit before starting.
And that’s the news from Lake Whoa! Be gone!
To your first paragraph, the problem lies in them. If the only reason that someone can come up with for why someone does something or thinks something is hate, then that says more about them than it does about the person they are thinking of. And you are such a nice, intelligent, inoffensive guy, that they can’t wrap their heads around the notion that someone like you could possibly not agree with them. We’re a silly bunch … people.
The problem may also lie in our apologetic-religious culture, which amps the rhetoric up to 10 on all sides immediately (I’m hazarding a guess as to what you’re thinking about, Tom, so forgive me if I’m off base). We all need to relax.
It’s not just religious discussion (and I use the term optimistically, if not sarcastically), but politics as well, though for some the two are inseparable (including a great many who insist they should be separate). Somewhere in my lifetime we went from “never discuss religion or politics” to “never NOT discuss religion or politics.” It would be one thing if people could do it respectfully and thoughtfully, but most of the time it’s “I’m a genius who must be heard; You’re an idiot who must shut up.”
I’m having a hard time imagining that anyone would be hateful or rude towards you. You have got to be one of the sweetest men I know. I say unfriend all those mean people on Facebook.
I’m glad that life is busy for you with your family. It’s nice to have something positive to focus on. Enjoy your week!
Well, they’re not being rude to me directly, per se. They just attack groups with which I identify. They probably don’t even stop to think beforehand, “Gee, do I have anyone on my friend list who is part of that group?” I should know better than to take offense at it, but there are days when it’s really hard not to.