Today – October 6, 2010 - at 3:25 PM I deactivated my Facebook account. When I navigated to the deactivate account page I was asked my “reason why” I was choosing to deactivate my Facebook account. I scanned the check boxes of generic and completely irrelevant reasons Facebook provided and opted to go with “other” and briefly but specifically described my “why”:
“A very large portion of the people on Facebook are worthless jackasses! I suppose I would reconsider using Facebook if I could be assured that I would, under no circumstances, be subjected to the self-centered blathering and useless ramblings of people I would likely not speak to if they were sitting next to me on a crashing airplane.”
October 12, 2010 8:22 PM - It’s been nearly one week since I took a brave, but mildly impetuous step in deactivating my Facebook account. Two days after I relinquished all superficial communication with my “friends” the battery cord to my laptop sizzled out. One could interpret the abrupt interruption of electronic power supply to my internet operating machine as God intervening – should I have a sudden flood of regret in my disconnection choice. Perhaps God did opt to send me a confirmation of my choice or maybe I am a careless owner of laptop power cords (to date I’ve gone through 6.) Whatever the case, I have been “off the interwebs juice” for nearly seven days, save the few instances when I sparingly used work-related bookmarks to complete work-related tasks.
So then this evening as I swept the kitchen floor of its thin pug hair blanket, I began to mentally chew over my absence - and potential reintegration to digital communication. Strangely I felt an initial twinge of uncertainty and awkwardness as I imagined scrolling through the daily updates from others - colon, half parenthesis or semi-colon, backslash seems peculiarly trivial.
Most importantly and honestly I don’t care what others are eating for dinner or how much some hate their ex-spouse. I wouldn’t have discussed these topics with these people in person (if I even really spoke to half of these people in person within the last three years) and I don’t have any idea how these subjects of conversation would maneuver their way into a “real life” dialogue.
Only time will tell if I – once again – become desensitized to the “blathering” of the 111 people Facebook labels as my “friends.”
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Don't Be Silly
When I survey the landscape of my life, the arduous and the effortless decisions that I willingly accepted in order to progress – I am only left with one solitary factor that either provided solace or provocation – companionship through the journey.
Feeling as a part of a struggling collective of one or many seems to ease the emotional burden and fears that often accompany new growth and direction.
Isolation and loneliness only lend themselves to become the playthings of self-doubt, fear and discouragement.
And as much as I long to listen and be heard in my journey I dare not weep and groan about my feelings of misfortune to those at a networking luncheon.
How odd.
Feeling as a part of a struggling collective of one or many seems to ease the emotional burden and fears that often accompany new growth and direction.
Isolation and loneliness only lend themselves to become the playthings of self-doubt, fear and discouragement.
And as much as I long to listen and be heard in my journey I dare not weep and groan about my feelings of misfortune to those at a networking luncheon.
How odd.
Friday, February 5, 2010
“I will go in this way and find my own way out”
“I will go in this way and find my own way out”
Lonely, isolated, misunderstood - I suppose we all often experience these wretched emotions from time to time. Adolescence (the awkward and emotionally volatile period) is expected to be both electrifying and despairing; adulthood – or the “thirties” – has no such expectations.
I would be remiss to live through days, weeks, months without acknowledging the lingering, waxing and waning multi-layered experiences of loneliness. In spite of the increasing quality of those whom I call friend or a partner there is still a profound, synchronized connection I yearn for that often seems absent.
“I’m coming slow but speeding”
Acceptance is the complete and total appreciation for someone or something. I have found absolute acceptance of others - including myself - elusive. The complementary qualities that lure two individuals to develop a bond are in fact, the very characteristics that create contention, distance and misunderstandings within relationships. I surmise it is then the inability or unwillingness of the opposing individuals to understand the needs of one another that creates the disconnection.
If we are to genuinely connect we must first, embrace our individualized traits and second, accept the balancing partner for their absolute reverse abilities in order to develop and maintain harmony. Synchronicity involves two separate and distinct entities working together, seamlessly in union without discord.
I feel suffocated by the discord.
Lonely, isolated, misunderstood - I suppose we all often experience these wretched emotions from time to time. Adolescence (the awkward and emotionally volatile period) is expected to be both electrifying and despairing; adulthood – or the “thirties” – has no such expectations.
I would be remiss to live through days, weeks, months without acknowledging the lingering, waxing and waning multi-layered experiences of loneliness. In spite of the increasing quality of those whom I call friend or a partner there is still a profound, synchronized connection I yearn for that often seems absent.
“I’m coming slow but speeding”
Acceptance is the complete and total appreciation for someone or something. I have found absolute acceptance of others - including myself - elusive. The complementary qualities that lure two individuals to develop a bond are in fact, the very characteristics that create contention, distance and misunderstandings within relationships. I surmise it is then the inability or unwillingness of the opposing individuals to understand the needs of one another that creates the disconnection.
If we are to genuinely connect we must first, embrace our individualized traits and second, accept the balancing partner for their absolute reverse abilities in order to develop and maintain harmony. Synchronicity involves two separate and distinct entities working together, seamlessly in union without discord.
I feel suffocated by the discord.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
A Teacher
"What is it, this love? The love which flows through us and beyond us?"
"Whitaker the man and the teacher will continue to flow into the story of our knowledge about human beings. His life, his thought, and his rapport with human suffering will continue to be appreciated by new generations of family therapists. As they grow tired of the endless models, new approaches, and supertechniques, in the end, they will yearn to find human beings and their qualities in the real world and not in the microscope. Whitaker's legacy will be revalued even by those who kept their distance during his lifetime, labeling him as "bizarre" and "irrational." Carl was a pioneer in family therapy, a giant, who did not allow himself to be seduced into creating a myth around his personality. He died without any official disciples, but he trained a multitude of therapists around the world, sometimes unbeknownst to them, with the power of integrity and coherence. He taught us more about life than about techniques. He taught us about the search for ourselves and our own spiritual essence, through the experience of suffering and solitude. "
-Excerpt from JMFT-1996 - Andolfi Maurizio after the death of Carl Whitaker
"Whitaker the man and the teacher will continue to flow into the story of our knowledge about human beings. His life, his thought, and his rapport with human suffering will continue to be appreciated by new generations of family therapists. As they grow tired of the endless models, new approaches, and supertechniques, in the end, they will yearn to find human beings and their qualities in the real world and not in the microscope. Whitaker's legacy will be revalued even by those who kept their distance during his lifetime, labeling him as "bizarre" and "irrational." Carl was a pioneer in family therapy, a giant, who did not allow himself to be seduced into creating a myth around his personality. He died without any official disciples, but he trained a multitude of therapists around the world, sometimes unbeknownst to them, with the power of integrity and coherence. He taught us more about life than about techniques. He taught us about the search for ourselves and our own spiritual essence, through the experience of suffering and solitude. "
-Excerpt from JMFT-1996 - Andolfi Maurizio after the death of Carl Whitaker
