On Violence and Social Media

This is a collection of observations and statements I've made on Facebook in the past two weeks, in response to all the violence and madness swirling through the headlines, and the resulting ire streaming down our social media walls. I hope it helps someone. (I have provided a timeline of events to give context.)

July 5, 2016 12:35 am CDT--Alton Sterling, shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge, LA

July 6, 2016 c. 9:00 pm CDT--Philando Castile, shot and killed by police in Falcon Heights, MN

July 7, 2016 c. 12:00 pm CDT--I posted a comment on Facebook based on my first, emotional reaction to the news of Philando Castile, stating that I would march in protest if the officer involved wasn't convicted. In reply, I got a message from an old friend so angry and hateful that I took the whole post down, sent that person a private message, and after a few minutes of reflection, posted this:

July 7, 2016 12:38 pm CDT--

I'm sorry.
Our country is so divided right now, and everybody is so angry. 
I think we can begin peace by someone admitting that all sides have at least one valid point, and one genuinely good reason for their anger. 
Anger stems from old hurts, and hurts get to be that old because the one who inflicted them never made amends. So, on behalf of parents, children, lovers, attackers, cheaters, thieves, entire systems of philosophy, theology, economics, government, entire races, whole species...
I'm sorry, and I love you.

July 7, 2016 1:11 pm CDT--

Friends, I'm sorry I didn't learn this sooner:
our anger level in this country right now makes it painful for others when we share "opinion pieces" about a myriad of topics. For the foreseeable future, I'm going to TRY (because I may fail) to only "Share" positive or strictly informational things, and just "Like" things with which I agree, but which may hurt some of you. Please let me know if you can still see my "Like"s, and I'll try to change that setting. America's way too angry right now.

July 7, 2016 8:58 pm CDT-July 8, 2016 c. 2:30 am CDT--Mass shooting of Dallas police officers and bystanders by PFC (Ret.) Micah Xavier Johnson

Photo by Dallas Police Department

July 8, 2016 1:07 pm CDT--

And then we wake to this. Police put their lives on the line for us, as do firefighters, EMS, our military, anybody who walks INTO a situation that we would naturally haul ass away from out of fear--and I honor them for that. The police have a great deal of authority in our everyday lives, and I want to be sure they are held accountable, only because I don't want ANYBODY dead. That's the whole point. Yes, ALL lives matter.

July 8, 2016 3:56 pm CDT--

Save a friendship. Before you de-friend anybody, consider just using the tiny gray downward arrow at the right-hand side of any post [on Facebook]. It gives you a drop-down menu, from which you can choose "Hide this post." There's a lot of anger swirling around right now; don't let your friends' need to vent make you do something you'll regret.

Violence and hatred are destructive forces; 

they cannot create anything except more of themselves. 

Please try Compassion.

Time for a Hodge-Podge

Yes, my faithful band of readers, another Hodge-Podge post is in order, as I have a few things about which to update you at the same time that are unconnected, except in the fact that they are all happening in my life. I admit this post is a long one, but I hope you will come with me for the whole adventure. As you will see shortly, the day I've had so far makes the title of this semi-regular feature particularly apt. But first, a writing update.

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A Finished Manuscript!

Ah, how those words roll trippingly off the tongue (or keyboard) of any aspiring author! The sense of pride, of accomplishment, increased self-worth, is boundless--for about 12 hours. Then the doubts set in. "These poems seem inexperienced. I sound childish and infantile! They're all too much alike, in both form and content. I KNOW that if they're combined into a single book, they should have a unifying theme, BUT..." and on and on it goes. So, I'm into the doubtful phase now, but ultimately, my opinion is no longer the one that matters; a publisher will accept it or not. My view of it is already set--I love my "little book" (nod to Louisa May Alcott, a heroine of mine), or I would not have bothered to keep going with it. I will always love it, for all the things it represents in my growth as a person and the memories it will always evoke for me. The only questions now are the subjective--Will anyone else be able to identify with my words and love them?--and the mundane--Will my efforts help me in the world of filthy lucre? I have no control over the answers to either, so I will simply send it out to see what, if anything, happens next.

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Even for a woman who owns a blog called The Beauty of Eclecticism, I have had a particularly diverse day. It started--as journeys down rabbit holes so often do these days--with a link that a friend posted on Facebook. NPR conducted an interview with the prioress and choir-mistress of a group on nuns who have been taken on a whirlwind tour of secular popularity with their sacred music in the past few years. The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, are a cloistered order, which means that they live their lives in community together but in near-total seclusion from the outside world. A common misconception about cloistered monastics is that they separate themselves from the rest of us because they fear we will contaminate them with our sinful ways. On the contrary, the best monastics gaze permanently and unflinchingly into the chasm of their own sinfulness, leaving no time to judge anyone else. They hide themselves away (as Christ instructed all of us to do during our prayer time) in order to devote as much time as they possibly can to praying for all of us, the entire rest of the world, as they know that not everyone can be cloistered, but we all need prayer, just the same. The sisters of Mary, Queen of Apostles, are dedicated to that mission.

The rise of the digiverse has been a God-send (if you'll pardon the pun) for secluded religious orders, because it allows them to have limited contact with the outside world on their own terms. They communicate with the rest of us through e-mail, websites, and in the case of orders such as this one, recordings of their beautiful liturgical music, which they also use to support and maintain their priory in Missouri. Videos about the sisters and their work, as well as other similar religious orders who produce music for the wider world, are available on YouTube, and if you are in need of a moment of heavenly peace right now, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you check them out.

From the sublime to the earthy we go. Somehow, my Facebook wanderings then led me to the home of fellow bloggers Amy and Kate, a mother-daughter pairing who have produced the enormously popular Homestead Revival. This blog chronicles the on-going journey of a family who chose the periodically fashionable path of "self-sustained living," "returning to the land," that sort of thing, and they are staunchly traditional Christians, talking frequently about homemaking and the Apostle Paul's injunction that wives should be submissive to their husbands. I think you'll agree that such a blog would not be my obvious choice of hang-out spot; I recently came out as a lesbian and divorced my husband, after leaving the ultra-conservative Eastern Orthodox church for the markedly liberal Episcopal Church.

That has been the theme of my day, what has made it eclectic and interesting--in short, a hodge-podge. I have been reminded that I don't have to agree with those I encounter to enjoy our common humanity, to learn from them and be spiritually nourished by their wisdom, and hopefully to be able to offer something in return in that exchange when given the opportunity. Moreover, I am officially an author with a manuscript soon to be under consideration by publishers; I have added to the sum total of artistic and emotional expression in human history. My life is little short of terrifying right now in a number of aspects, and these are interludes of peace at the center of my storms.

Facebook Exclusives!

Just a short programming note:

Have you "liked" The Beauty of Eclecticism on Facebook yet?  If not, be sure to do so now; I give exclusive updates there that you can't get anywhere else!

Updates, Announcements, Confessions

Confession:

I'm beginning to understand now why so many bloggers dedicate an entire blog just to their reading life.  Trying to keep up with reviews, reading challenges, and everything from just general life that I want to blog about all in one place is somewhat baffling, because it means I could easily write about 5 posts a day.  My whole point in naming this blog what I did, though, was to highlight the quite disparate threads of my life that all meet in my one brain, so I'm not prepared to start splitting everything off into forty different blogs.  I've done enough of that already.  So, multiple posts looming ahead; fair warning has been given.

Updates:

NaBloPoMo.  (If that means nothing to you, click here to read the relevant post in the archives.)  I finished my first month of NaBloPoMo, and did indeed meet my goal of posting every day.  Having done it once, I was thinking of taking a well-earned break from it, until I found out October's theme: BETWEEN.  Talk about a theme speaking to a person!  Michael and I are between jobs, lives, future plans, rocks and hard places--if it's a major circumstance you can get stuck between in life, we're pretty much there right now.  In other words, I'll be continuing to NaBloPoMo until further notice.

Brigid the SuperToddler did NOT develop any black eye after falling and banging her nose on the coffee table last night--YAY!  I prayed earnestly about this, and all I can say is thank God.  She has a little cut on her nose, but she's going to be just fine.

Announcements:

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!  **crashing cymbals**

I'm hosting my first ever reading challenge/blog hop here at The Beauty of Eclecticism, called the Read Your Own Library! Challenge.  Rules and further explanations are available here, and I hope you'll join us, because it's going to be lots of fun!  If you have books on your shelves that you've owned and been meaning to read forever, this challenge was made for you (and me, because I'm in exactly the same boat).  Tell your friends!  This will be an on-going monthly challenge, and the link will open here on the 5th of each month.  This will give you a few days to decide what book(s) you're going to read and get your post written.  The link will close on the 8th of each month, by which time I assume that everyone who is going to enter for the month will already have done so.  Hope to see you there!

The Beauty of Eclecticism is on Facebook!  Yes, your favorite blog has its own page on Facebook now, and WE NEED "LIKES," so come like us, won't you?  In return, we'll give you daily updates on blog doings in your Facebook feed (provided Facebook doesn't CHANGE the Facebook feed yet again).

You may have noticed that there's a new link in the right sidebar called "Commonplace Book."  A Commonplace Book is a place to record awesome quotes and other useful information one stumbles across while reading, and I decided that a dedicated blog to store such things would be my one concession to separating my reading somewhat, so that it doesn't totally overwhelm The Beauty of Eclecticism.  Click on the link (or click here) and check it out.  Quotes!  Get your fresh quotes here!

--End of Bulletin--
We now return you to your regularly scheduled life, already in progress.