1. Ride the waves.
2. Enjoy the ride.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Do Not Blog While Grumpy
This is probably sound advice.
I think I've been on Facebook too much lately.
I'm realizing that I am not getting any more used to all the profanity, homosexual banter, and angry rantings. Rather, I am finding that I feel like I am taking a bath in very dirty water. Now, what to do with this dilemma. I actually care about the people I am friends with on Facebook. Want to be a warm and accepting person in re other people. Just wondering how it came to be that unwholesome (now there's an old-fashioned word) communication is apparently not only acceptable but even preferable.
When I think of parents that I have looked up to, I know they would not want their children to be using profanity regularly and lightly, joking in relatively graphic terms about homosexual topics, and dismissing the world or parts thereof with acerbic, bitter, or caustic comments. Of course, most of the parents I look up to were heavy into parenting BEFORE the Facebook era. (BFE)
I want my children and other young adults i love to care about protecting the sensibilities of others by caring about what they are posting. The ocean comes to mind, since i am on the beach. i stood in the waves yesterday and felt their strong pull -- both shoreward and out to sea. I could no more stop those waves than I could create the ocean. So, digging my heels in to stop the waves wouldn't have the desired outcome. I do get weary of "going with the flow" all the time, but there must be a sense in which taking a stand for a minute, to at least stand strong against the waves, can have an affect on me, even if the waves do not stop. The whole analogy, for those who cannot read my mind, is about the tidal wave of language on Facebook, both word choice and usage.
Do other parents intentionally steer clear of their kids' Facebook pages so as not to know, keeping their head in the sand, as it were? I hate the feeling of sand in my ears, eyes, mouth and nose, so that doesn't really work for me. Do other parents steer clear of their kids' Facebook pages because they believe "kids will be kids" and the kind of communication happening on Facebook is just fine?
So what do I want? I want to be in communication with my own kids and their friends. And I'm realizing that just reading status updates is not being in communication, even if it may be what passes for communication these days. I suppose it's up to me what I read on Facebook, as I do have options to hide and de-friend people. And I want to be an actor, an originator, not just a receptor and reactor.
As usual, this blog entry helped me think through what it is I want, and I just shared it with those few people who also read this blog. Never a dull moment for those who are simply trying to live life as people who love and care about others.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
There's a Reason Why People Always ...
write about the sea.
Between Hemingway and Melville and lots of other people, plenty has been written about the ocean, so I hardly think I'm going to add anything particularly original here, but the ocean is just so rife with meaning and beauty and grace and experience.
Man, I love the ocean. I love the expanse. I love the depth. I love the Mariana Trench. I love the waves and the tides and the beach and the sand. I love the lantern fish. It's all just really beautiful.
I know. I wax eloquent. But I got to introduce Kepler to the ocean today. I remember when our older kids saw the ocean for the first time and that was a sweet time, but Kepler's experience is quite a bit more present to me.
I think of the ocean like I think of love. When you experience genuine love, you want more and more of it, like the ocean. The ocean draws you in little by little like love does. The ocean is wild and dangerous and exciting, like love is. Love, like the ocean, has meaning and beauty and grace and experience. And there ya go. Love and the ocean. Both irresistible. Both larger than life.
Think I figured it out.
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