November 14th, 2016
As the subject line states, here it is verbatim...
Not so long ago, in this very galaxy, I used LiveJournal as my primary social media platform. Many of Facebook's ease-of-use features dragged most of the people I knew there over here, and I readily joined the herd in the mass migration. While I enjoy many of those features, I noticed fairly quickly after the migration that Facebook was changing the manner in which everyone was both communicating and thinking. "tl;dr" became a real thing, and I found myself compensating for it -- writing my posts so that people did actually read every word I wrote. I didn't care for it. So, I started making promises to myself about making the effort to post more frequently on LJ, breaking them, and then making them again.
Well, at the risk a jinxing my most recent run of regular posting over there -- one that started without such a promise -- I am now stating that I will continue making the effort to post longer, more thoughtful pieces over there. It feels like it's harder to compose such pieces, but I'm finding that it's worth the effort. It's making me feel better about myself and the world around me. Maybe part of our problem in understanding "the other side" is that we have unwittingly become shackled by tl;dr communication. It's something we need to stop doing, and for whatever it's worth, I will heavily cut back on pithy three-to-four sentence (max) posts.
As I have for the past week or so, I will keep posting to Facebook links to what I write over there, and continue to read my friends posts (well, the one's that Facebook will actually show me without having to visit each and everyone's page individually) and leave comments on them in my usual manner. I hope that if you have made it to the end of this post that you will join me in this endeavor, because I want to read longer, more thoughtful posts. You don't have to use LJ as I do (I'm just sticking with it because that's where I started back in 2002.) Pick any free blogging service, start linking to your posts from here, and I will take the time to read them. I truly mean it when I want this type of communication to be a two-way street.
If, however, I end up performing the online version of lecturing to an empty lecture hall, then so be it. At least I'll be communicating in my true voice, which doesn't come through on Facebook as often as it should.
I feel like that the mindset of the day was indicative of the one I've harbored since the horrid realization of a likely Trump victory hit me on Tuesday night. All efforts to properly take care of myself went out the window. There wasn't much I could do about the insomnia that overtook me on Tuesday and Wednesday night -- well, not much outside of pharmaceutical aid -- but the unrestrained comfort eating, increased alcohol consumption, and avoidance of any real physical activity (with the exception of Saturday's hive-inducing walk) was the way I dealt with my feelings following the election.
Before bed last night, I decided that had to end. Although I can't do much about the residual anxiety and depression caused by half of America losing its collective mind on Tuesday, I can still, and must, properly take care of myself. I didn't start on last night's determination the way I intended. Instead, I decided that I'd rather tackle some of the pressing, necessary, overdue housekeeping before work than after it this evening, but I have held my ground so far with the comfort eating (I know, easily said at 11:05 in the morning) and my current plan is to not have another drink until later this week.
Interestingly, I feel like my newfound determination to keep writing and posting to LJ is acting as some sort of aid in returning to normal, even if this particular action hasn't been the norm for me for years. True, it started as a response to what I felt was an abnormal situation, but at the moment it feels like it should be a part of my returning to normal. We'll just see how long this lasts.
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