I find that I frequent Facebook less and less as time goes on. The hysteria exhibited by people in the face of difficult times is corrosive, and oh so loud on Facebook. Constant descriptions of conditions, and pseudo-intellectual analysis of the current conditions, do nothing at all to promote social sanity. It matters not to me that what is ranted about might be accurate, as it well might be, or might not be. My point is that hysteria serves no positive purpose.
Like minded people need not batter one another with the obvious.
The only certainty is ourselves, what we do, the difference we make in our day to day lives. Kindness, compassion, decency, these are the kinds of things that our species survival depends upon. These things are simple, anyone can act upon them. These things require no super power, no rhetoric, and are best practised quietly and consistently.
The aim of the social structure is not to engender individual balance and a better world, regardless of rhetoric and/or appearances. That is our job, as individuals. A lot of people do this really well. The people doing the best job at it are not heard of, they are too busy to promote their images. I love that.
So, dear diary, dear universe, please help those in need, please provide benign lessons for those who have a lot to learn about personal balance.
On another note, it was just too cold to go for a stroll today, so we decided to take a walk through the grocery store aisles instead. Good thing we did, we found bone-in chicken breasts on sale for $1.00 a pound, unheard of, but there it was. The catch was that the best before date on them was for Sunday. We grabbed four packages. When we walked by a second time, they were all snatched up.
This sale may have been because the manager mistakenly bought too much stock, and had to unload it before it expired. Or, my favourite explanation, the manager bought surplus stock deliberately so as to offer this bargain to shoppers, who, at the time of day we are there, are primarily seniors, with scant items in their carts, struggling to find food they can afford. I love that thought, wouldn’t it be grand if it were true! It would be doing something compassionate, quietly, and hopefully consistently in the future.
Sending a my heartfelt gratitude to all of you out there who do what you can, when you can, without public accolades. You know who you are. Thank you.
Worldly
Weather
-22°C
Date: 6:00 AM EST Thursday 20 February 2025
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.2 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: -19.5°C
Dew point: -22.6°C
Humidity: 76%
Wind: NNW 7 km/h
Wind Chill: -29
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Little by little, one travels far.”
J. R. R. Tolkien
1892 – 1973
Social media can all get a bit much, especially when so many people reshare the same bad news post, making you see it over and over and over. I try not to do that!
I’ve never used facebook for political or emotional discussions. I use it strictly for following family and people local to me. I do thoughtful exchanges on YouTube. I think the difference is you can totally ignore comments on YouTube, while FB is quite in your face when people quote you.
Sadly, quite a few people recently seem to feel released to be heartless and attacking. There seem to be more people who feel they’ve personally lost something if someone else has a positive experience.
Lucky you with getting such a bargain on the chicken breast! We never worry about short best before or use by dates. All our meat goes straight into the freezer as soon as it gets home.
We also got a chance to go out shopping today. Our road was closed further north due to blowing but the cop was nice and said he’d let us go back home since the entrance is only about 100m from the road closed sign.
Joan, I agree, it can all be a bit much. I have people I like to follow and touch base with on Facebook, that is a plus. There are groups I am part of that are essential to navigating the modern world, that is a plus.
Teri, great observations about some of the people on social media. I am seeing loaded political rhetoric show up in discussions about things like gardening, or fermentation, utterly ridiculous. I have blocked a lot of people just lately, they won’t miss me, I am not their target audience. They are looking for drama, I’ve none to offer.
Aren’t freezers great! They pay for themselves very quickly, particularly now with food prices the way they are.
Glad you got out for your shopping, some cops are nice.
I try o ignore the political posts on FB but sometimes I slip. I have friends who are truly distraught over political events.
Sandy, I hear you, and I do sympathize with those who are truly distraught. If friends are expressing a specific concern, I am all ears and a shoulder. But if they want to post nasty memes about the people they object to, or discuss the ins and outs of politics, or religion, or other super structural concepts, I do scroll right by, my friends that is. I belong to a lot of interest groups, I enjoy them for the most part, and scroll by most things I don’t agree with, or have no interest in. But there are individuals, not my friends, who insist in inserting hysterical rhetoric into benign topics, pasta making, how can you insert political rage into pasta making… and yet, there we are, political rage being discussed in a pasta making thread. This is rampant at the moment, it feels as if bots might be following me around, trying create distress wherever they can. The intensity of the rage, indignation, derision, well it is astounding to me. My friends are not the issue, if they need to discuss politics I scroll by, and if that does not bring me peace, I can always pause them for 30 days while they deal with their feelings. I’ve only ever blocked one “friend”, and that was because he was abusive towards another friend who commented on a post, vile really, they didn’t know one another… to the aggressor was blocked. But that only happened once.