Why I Post
Anything Anywhere
(On my blog or on any social media)
I post things that I consider important for me to live my life with integrity and peace, not what I think you should think. I’m not trying to convince or convert anyone.
I never post impulsively, emotionally, or without deep discernment. Often I wait a day to be sure that my post is a reflection of who I am, my integrity and is in alignment with peace and truth.
I use my web space for my perspective on peace and on truth only. Any responses outside of promoting peace and truth are not welcome. Use your own page for your negative or pejorative comments.
I post things that I do not want to forget. So often we end up learning the same lessons over and over because we humans are a forgetful people. Have you ever noticed the number of Old Testament verses beginning with REMEMBER?
So when I first began blogging 20 years ago, I knew I needed to create a way to capture what is important and to return to those things so I don’t forget.
Low and behold blogs and social media were being created at that time. I didn't know what either of them were or how to use them. For me, their usefulness has become remembering what I have learned each day and reminding myself of what I have forgotten, inevitably, over time. It is a form of contemplation, introspection, and deep discernment.
This is why I continue to post anything anywhere (in my blog or on social media). It has worked for me. I find myself returning to my blog especially and social media, mostly facebook but also I’m learning to use substack.
I have no interest in convincing you of anything and I have no interest in trying to get you to think, feel, see, believe, or act like me. We need difference. Diversity is how we survive in all creation, and also in a democracy.
I promise that you will never find me trolling you or posting on your page without invitation.
Our opinions and beliefs (both yours and mine) are much too precious and personal to be violated by another person.
My blog is called
Living with Open Hands
(versions 1 & 2).
See:
https://livingwithopenhands2.blogspot.com
2.0
Needless to say, what I say and do comes from my world and life view expressing my identity and purpose. It has taken 20 years for me to deconstruct and reconstruct in a form where my thinking is coherent enough to try to express it. I’ve had to tear down many strongholds that I have been conditioned to believe and cling to. Much of this journey has been a process of letting go of all but that which is essential and absolutely necessary for me to carry on in this life.
Why most people post,
from my perspective,
For attention to be seen and heard.
To be right (hence making others wrong).
To promote opinions and beliefs (hoping to convert others to their way of thinking).
Unconsciously, when we post for these reasons, it is in order to put down others and their thinking, to call them names by labeling them, to promote my own ego. These are subtle forms of violence due to the underlying motivations of dominance, superiority, and self-righteousness.
And on and on…
Most of the time, we post our opinions and beliefs; which are pervasive undiscerned underlying cultural assumptions that come from our cultural conditioning from birth on (Both individually and collectively as a society). These are largely unconscious or subconscious:
For example, Fundamentalism or Evangelicalism: these come from two primary forces of external authority in our culture. Religious and political. These are powerful sources that seep into our subconscious mind and drive our thoughts and actions.
NOTE: It took 50 years for me to see this conditioning that was driving me because it is so strongly embedded, anchored deep within. Sadly I have hurt people I care about due to my lack of awareness and consciousness.
Without the inner work necessary to go within and uncover these hidden forces, we are left without knowing ourselves or what is driving us.
Fundamentalism is a sort of cancer that is malignant and lives to spread and take over any host it can, just like memes on the internet. Sometimes we begin to detect it by its symptoms, just like any disease.
In order to get to the root of the issue, we must learn the symptoms that tend to be indicators:
Do you always have to have the last word?
Do you have this deep inner drive to be right all the time?
Instead of really listening, is your mind busy formulating a response or a smart comeback?
Do you spend your time among those that agree with you (a bubble of familiarity and safety), rather than being challenged by those that see things from a different perspective?
Do you feel like you need to make others think, feel, and see things just like you? Are you uncomfortable when they don’t? Do you lie awake at night because they don’t listen and agree with you?
Looking back on my life, I can now see that these are the symptoms that I exhibited, and for that I am sorry. It has taken 20 years of introspection to gradually learn to discern the truth of conditioning buried deep within. It is a hard and painful journey but I am so grateful that I am on this road and that I am learning to see; to live with open hands as an expression of an open heart, open mind, and open will. I am also very grateful to have stumbled on using my blog to journal my journey. https://ronirvine.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/journaling-the-journey/
See also, Why I Write https://livingwithopenhands2.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-i-write-20.html