IF WISHES WERE NICKELS

It's a funny thing about blogging... I frequently want to begin my posts with "Previously on Your Daily Dose...." and then give you a synopsis of one or more blogs that bring new readers up to speed, and remind old readers of what I am talking about. Yeah, I am talking about those little scenes they do at the beginning of many TV shows, to catch people up on what has gone down, so they aren't completely lost in that episode. Or, more importantly, they fully enjoy it, rather than just sorta getting it.



I started seriously blogging on Facebook. Eventually, I was dual blogging here and on Facebook. It was more or less the same blog in both places. Of course, in the beginning, I had no followers here and a decent following there. I had some friends who read my blog regularly (and commented). As luck would have it, Facebook had wayback week shortly after my blog launched. In the spirit of wayback week, I blogged about wayback stuff. Well... that included a lot of junior high and high school stuff. A lot of my facebook friends lived through that, too. Can I say that I hit nerves everywhere? I learned more about people that I thought I knew well, people I knew I didn't know at all, and people I thought I knew something about, but didn't actually know anything at all. It turned out to be this major cathartic experience for everyone. I had people that I didn't really know emailing me (in a good way).


Anyway, wayback week ended and my blog turned to other topics. That was a good thing because I am not sure we could have taken much more of that. More high school friends continued to pop up out of the woodwork (and still do). I use the word friends loosely. Every now and again, someone who was truly a friend does get on Facebook, but usually it is just another person that I vaguely remember, but we didn't run in the same circles. If you weren't in theatre or music, we weren't in the same crowd. Well, if you went to my junior high I might remember you. Or if you were really smart. I took a lot of enriched classes for college. So, I was your theatre, music, smart geek. If you fall into any of those categories, I might know who you are.

Anyway, I went through a really bad time after we moved back to GA. Before we figured out the "mattress situation," and even after the mattress situation, my migraines were really bad. I had forgotten what it was like to feel that bad all the time. And I wrote this blog. It wasn't one of my better days. It was a bad day. I posted it here and on facebook. I just read it again here and I see that Purple Cow was the only one who commented on it. I think I had a following of maybe 9 people then. I don't think all 9 actually read my blog. That's funny.

Anyway, over on Facebook I posted that same blog and got more comments. However, they were not what I was expecting, and are a big part of the reason that I slowly stopped posting there. I had two drama/music friends from high school hit me with very long Jesus Loves You with Scripture Comments. To be honest, it really felt like a slap in the face. Had I really been suicidal, it would have been the knock-out... the thing to push me right over the edge. Instead, it made me angry. Someone who is truly in really bad shape needs to know that YOU care. Extend the hand of friendship before you start citing scripture and talking about Jesus. I wrote a follow-up blog to that one that made me feel better, but I don't think they ever read it. *Sigh*

I have received comments on here that have included scripture and they have not bothered me at all. What is the difference? The person leaving them, of course. If you show that you care about a person and their situation, whatever it may be, and then offer up something that you think that is pertinent that might be helpful, or provide solace, it is a good thing. If that thing is scripture from your heart, I am cool with that.



You might be wondering what has made me think of this today. One of these Scripture Throwing People has been emailing me on Facebook. He is very frustrated with people because he feels that other people are not tolerant of his viewpoint, while he considers himself to be very tolerant of others. Unfortunately, I have seen firsthand how untrue this is by watching him get into word warfare with another high school friend on that person's status. It got really ugly before it was all said and done. However, I chose not to remind him of that. The thing is that all he wants to talk about is religion and politics. In other words, hot topics designed for argument. I told him that I don't talk about those things because it's not worth losing friends over those topics. I said, "Besides, you are more than politics and religion. Go find some common ground with these people if you want to be friends."

Some final thoughts to try and wrap this into some semblance of something. For fellow Facebookers: If you want to find out some interesting things about your classmates, write some blogs about what you went through in school and start tagging people you went to school with; I guarantee you will be surprised by the results. Also, do you have to use a yearbook to identify some of the people you went to school with? Damn it. I ended a sentence with with. Damn it. I did it again. You know what is worse? When the yearbook doesn't even help.


For the record, I don't consider myself a religious person. I am a spiritual person. If Jesus were to come back today and live amongst us, I don't think he would be a religious person, either. Wars are fought over religion. I think he would say he is a spiritual person. Thus, so say I. I am a spiritual person. I don't care much for people who talk one way and live another way. I am more of a walk the walk sort of person. Finally, I am not angry at my scripture tossing friends anymore. That it is just who they have turned into. I wish that they could be people who just believe, know it, and live it, so that they don't have to talk about it 24/7, but if wishes were nickels, I would be a very rich woman.


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