A few days ago I made the colossal mistake of setting foot into the “social internet” in search of hopefully kindred spirits - or “Unicorns” as I labelled them at the time - fellow recorders of life’s exhalations.
The wonderful thing about writing a blog - to me at least - is the bubble of solitude I sit in while writing it. My own little world, filled with the unimportant and inconsequential. A world without the voices or vices of others.
Given that most of my waking week revolves around others - doing chores, running errands, picking up, washing up, or tidying up at home - or descending into code caverns measureless to man for work - having somewhere else that is “mine” is kind of wonderful.
There’s something about standing your words up for others to read - there’s something about being a part of something bigger than yourself. So you stand your words up, click “publish”, invite the world to read them, and then walk swiftly in the opposite direction - listening for furious footsteps behind you.
How much do we share with others? How much of a wall do we leave to hide behind? I suspect my wall probably has more bricks left in it than many. I’m not sure if that’s because I worry about betraying confidences, or because I fear the reaction to what I really think about things.
The best way to avoid confronting truths is to avoid talking about them.
I watched an interesting panel discussion about belief, faith, and religion last night - where Richard Dawkins and Ricky Gervais spoke at length about their experiences as self-proclaimed “atheists”. Ricky made the astute observation that it’s a shame there has to be a counter term to “theism” at all.
The entire nature of opposition annoys me - that some people feel the need not only to question your thoughts, opinions, or views - but in doing so illustrate the fragility of their own. In sharing with the community, we shouldn’t have to prepare a defence, and we shouldn’t then have to dance around reactions to avoid further upsetting the obviously easily triggered.
It’s almost like a certain demographic search for opportunities to disagree - for hills to fight pitched battles on about anything and everything that opposes their personal view of what others should think or feel about the world and it’s people.
I find myself wondering why some people have such trouble accepting opposing thoughts, views, or opinions. It’s always been a mystery to me. Perhaps their opposition tells us more about them than ourselves, and our trepidation in triggering a reaction is misplaced.
Anyway.
I’ve written quite a lot about not very much. Norah would probably be proud.