Clear Skies

Over the years, I have seen people give up a lot of things they really love for Lent.  I once gave up my one nightly can of beer for those 40 days, and that didn't hurt. I also gave up McDonald's for Lent back in the days when I was a McRegular, and those 40 days felt like 400.

SO this year, I decided to come at the Lenten sacrifice a little differently, and took the notion to do an extra positive thing every day. I'm always looking for a way to pass along a compliment or do a surprise favor for someone. Being the tightwad that I am, I'm not about to go about passing out C-notes to bewildered passersby, but I will take your grocery cart back to the Cart Corral at the Giant, and isn't that worth a hundred bucks to you right there? And I have also learned that it's best to wait until the other person has emptied the cart before marching off with it...

And then the other day, along came a chance to do something good for myself. 

I had a person who became a Facebook friend through a mutual friend.  But this person made it their business every day to dog me with snark, commenting in the negative about things I said, and expressing views contrary to those of myself and my friends.

I rolled it off for a few years, since everyone has the right to express themselves, but then I saw that the person and his/her friends were speaking ill of me on their pages and coming out with some really, really twisted things, conflating history with their own FOX-y notions, and questioning the levels of my intelligence and integrity. I don't think that being a liberal is a dirty thing to be.

To improve your view, clear out the unfriendly clouds, or, as someone said, "If you can't change the people around you, change the people around you."

Without ceremony or commotion, I hit the unfriend button and I feel good about it. When you think about it, if you think about your social media contacts as your neighbors in the big electronic town we inhabit, you are not going to invite people into your e-house to insult or debase you.

Many was the time that others asked me why I allowed this torrent on my page. For years, I said I did so because I believed in free speech. Now I say that respectful dissenting opinions are welcomed, but if you're coming in here without respect, I will respectfully show you the exit. 

Be nice, or be somewhere else.  A good pruning now and then gets rid of clutter.