I read 7 Ways to Be Insufferable on Facebook this morning, and it took me some time to figure out whether/how to respond to it. It reminded me of people in my past who would mock every expression of joy that did not make sense to them. It reminded me of myself in the years when I felt alone and lonely and angry at everyone else who did not. I turned a lot of responses over in my mind before coming up with one that is most authentically me. Below is my response to the writer…whomever he or she may be, as there is, ironically, no individual name attached to it.
May you be blessed with a tribe that follows you on FB that is happy to hear your descriptions of what is going great in your life in that moment.
May your romantic relationship(s) be happy and healthy and stable, to the point where you don’t mind saying so in your FB status from time to time.
May your funny bone develop to the point you and your FB connections can share vague statuses just to amuse one another.
May your FB feed be full of people who care about the mundane details of your day, just because they care that much about you.
May your friendships be so fulfilling that you don’t feel so left out when you read others’ public private messages.
May you be blessed with friends (and bio family, if possible) who lovingly overwhelm you to the point where you can’t help but give an Oscar acceptance speech on occasion.
May your obvious opinions come from your heart, and may your tribe honor them just because of that.
May you feel gratitude for the wisdom of others and find people who are grateful to have you share yours.
But most of all, instead of seeing narcissism, manipulation, or some other negative in others’ FB posts and contributing bitterness, may you see and contribute beauty to the world.
6 responses to “I wish you love.”
the trend of “7 ways you’ll (insert snarky title here)” or “The Top (insert number here) Ways to be (insert topic here)” makes me skip articles entirely. It’s a lazy way to write on a topic. and this particular article you link to, is so incredibly snarky and mean, it has no value to a compassionate person.
I usually skip such articles, too. But the link was posted by someone I like, so I thought it might be a humorous article. I was sorely mistaken.
Your reaction was a lot more charitable than mine.
My initial reaction was not at all charitable, neither towards the author, nor towards myself. But as I sat with my reaction and processed it, the charity came through.
I think that writer needs a hobby, I’d much rather catch up with my friends on Facebook than finish reading that article. I love your response, though. 🙂
I’m with you! 🙂