Saturday, December 31, 2011

Never write down what you don't want other people to know.

This is something my mother taught me a long time ago.

When I was in 5th grade, I kept a diary, not unlike most children did before the popularity of whatever it is that children do now. I kept that diary on my dresser without a thought of anyone sneaking a peak at what I had to say.  I was 10, my parents didn't invade any privacy I might have had, and my brother is 6 years younger then me.  At 34, I look back at my life and can tell people all sorts of stories. How many of them were from when I was 10? Only this one.  So with that said there was nothing of any real interest noted in said diary, except the warning signs of being an horrible speller for life.

So one day I came into class after recess and found my classmate reading my diary. Out loud. To everyone in the world over a megaphone.  She emphasised words with long vowels, and the sound of dull laughter was slowly replaced by high pitched giggles, and folded arms extended into straight lines pointed directly at me.  And there I died.  My life was over. Forever.

Looking back I have no idea even what that girl said.  And if I'm going to be completely honest here, I didn't even know what she said then.  There were no private jokes, mean statements or proclamations of love.  There was nothing but the word "like", as in "I like the people in my class".  That was the moment I first thought that the world was a cruel place.  Fast forward many years and crazy people later, I no longer think it's the world's fault. Now I just think people are ignorant. 

Even today, it only takes one person to twist something before the larger part of humanity grabs a hold of it and finds it to be true.  I don't even blame the person who does the twisting(hey at least they are creative!).  It's the mindless following of people who believe it and continue to talk about it before ever checking their facts.  I'm pretty sure most of us learned to write research papers in school that required a source of some kind, like a book or encyclopedia (remember those!). Well today we have something called Google.  It's awesome. It's located on that same machine, but a different website from the one you use to stalk, sorry talk to your friends, so you don't even have to disconnect the phone from your ear to use it.  I know.. I know.. it's really a minute more work to type it in yourself, then to just put out a tweet or post asking for the answer.  Honestly though, if you posted about Bon Jovi being dead last week, you're followers, would have given you the wrong answer.  But hey, you still looked cool to them when you confirmed it with your next post.  And in the end that is really all that matters, because as long as no one expects you to ever have anything interesting, different or intelligent to say, well then you are golden.

Me on the other hand, I have a lot of different things to say. In fact, I have a feeling it's not all that different from how most of us really feel.  It's not all cynical, I promise.  I just want to be able to talk about the things that come up in life that for some reason or another we aren't supposed to mention.  And I want to write it down for everyone to read it.