I recently deleted a comment I made on Facebook.
It was not insulting or inflammatory. It was nothing controversial or salacious. It probably wouldn't have even sparked discussion let alone debate. I had simply observed an oddity in an image a friend posted. This oddity had nothing to do with them. They had not created it nor were they likely to know who had. They could neither change it nor did it bear any consequence to them. Pointing it out achieved nothing, so I erased my comment.
Not long before that, I composed a blog post and decided not to publish it. The post was well written (of course) and contained witticisms about an annoyance that I have no doubt many people can relate to. A good vent is healthy, a literary one even better, but once it's out of your system need it exist any more? If the opportunity to educate those responsible for said annoyance presents itself, I will gladly use a clever turn of phrase to help them better their ways. But posting what was essentially a one way discussion felt fruitless, so I chose not to.
In both of these instances, I found myself asking a pointed question. What does this contribute?
The word itself seemed to smack me out of stupor...
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I was never one to post comments or actively fuel the flames of online debate, because I always thought it encouraged too much impulsive negativity, no matter the topic. I decided to actively avoid even looking at, let alone sharing, anything born from ignorance, xenophobia, or hatred of any ilk. In a world where views legitimize perspectives, I refuse to give such things my eyeballs.
And then I realized that what I was refusing to do for the hordes of hatred was exactly what I needed to do for the passion driven waves of positivity.
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I, like many people in the face of what I have come to call the luditrocities of our world, have been struggling to figure out what I can do to better any aspect of it. I mean really, what it the actual $%*#! can any of us do?! When the most recent anvil dropped upon our already cartoonishly flattened skulls (or have there been several since?) I opted to take a step back and say to myself you'll figure it out.
I saw the many calls to arms going out to all the artists in the world to use their arts to speak out, to share their perspectives, to educate, to generate empathy, to open narrow minds. I'm a true believer in the power of art. But the more I saw those reminders the more I thought yes, I know... but how?
And the answer was so simple.
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So, as we enter this new year in this seismically unstable world I resolve to do one simple thing.
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