Blocking Muting Type Type Type

Photo credit: Roseanne Barr and Patrick Bet David Podcast/youtube videos.

This animal....this beast called social media has given us all powers...powers that many of us grip with glee over one another.

I was on X (formerly known as Twitter) this weekend and I playfully asked someone if I disagreed with them would they block me....and their stoic answer was ¨Yes, I'll block you if you badger me¨.

Well, that kinda sums it up eh? We all kinda relish that blocking muting cancelling power don´t we?

Yes, myself included. I am often tempted to block folks who don´t believe what I believe and don´t agree with my personal views. But I am starting to wonder if that is a tad childish on my part. 

Why? Because in the real world, we can´t actually block folks we disagree with. We share the roads with people we don´t agree with.... We share church pews with folks we may not agree with on some issues. We share workplaces and restaurants with many folks who don´t feel the same as we do..

So, I guess my question today to myself is this? How far do I go with trying to control the narratives that come my way? How far do I go to sidestep folks who strongly disagree with some of my most cherished beliefs?

And just to bring it to another level.....if I profess to believe in Jesus, how much love and acceptance do I show towards those I am supposed to be blessing and praying for? Is it possible to block and mute someone on social media and then pray for them in the same heart beat? It is possible to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ if I am trying to build a virtual island where only my own words echo off the walls?

Do I really want to build an island where only I have permission to speak?

Cancelling folks and muting and blocking folks....perhaps we relish it so much because we don´t have enough control over other areas of the public sphere. Where you fall on this issue? Do you let anyone speak whatever they wish on your channels and different social media apps? Or do you clamp down and silence every voice that doesn´t sound like yours? Do share.

Peace,

Carla

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Thought Life....book life

One can not talk anything meaningful about one's thought life without discussing their
book life.

What is a book life? Well, the books you surround yourself with have lives of their own.

I am not even speaking about the book that you are currently immersed in . I am speaking even of the books that sit idly on your night stand or dusty piano, or atop on ole book shelf. I am talking about the text books from the college you dropped out of, that you keep in storage in the attic. Their words still speak. The fact that you haven't disposed of these books, is a testament in and of itself.
Your recycling bin has been seeking to recycle your books, but you have resisted. You have hung onto certain books because they were markers in shifts in your thinking, in your thought life, in your formal education or in your  self led self taught "home" school.

Your books have been markers of your paths of discovery. They reflect that journey to maturity...or painfully show us how far we still have to go....

I think it was Napoleon Hill, who stated that "thoughts are things".

Therefore when we surround ourselves with certain books, we are surrounding ourselves with many millions of "things" belonging to the authors of those books. Their words fill our minds, our space, our ideals. We argue with their thoughts, we discuss and dismiss or else contradict completely what we read. But we always respond to whatever we read. It is merely human nature.

 I have always resented it when someone tried to tell me what I should and shouldn't read....It felt so controlling and intrusive. I have also resented it when electronic book readers try to shove their way into my consciousness. Blogs I have embraced. Twitter too.....but reading the books I am passionate about, I want to hold in my grubby hands myself....in paper format. They may be printed on the cheapest newsprint, or the crispest leather bound hard cover, or they may be pages I've printed off and stapled together in an attempt to produce a "real" book. But it must be old school. It is a book.

 I want to bend the corners back on the pages I visit often. I want to scribble in the margins. I want to Tweet some of their quotable quotes. I continue to become delighted to uncover how great an ocean of knowledge is awaiting me in the land of books. This land beckons me still.

What mankind writes about is a reflection of what it finds important or profitable to repeat.

Soon it will be spring time in this beautiful land of Canada....and with it will come the inevitable urge to purge. Muted books will stumble into my hands and leap toward the recycling bin with reckless abandon. But I must resist. I will attempt to keep at least one book from each of my fave influential authors. Many of their thoughts I have already committed to memory. But I must keep a momento of their position of power in my life. The authors have earned a trophy. That trophy is a space on my book case.

in peace,

Carla.

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